Lightweight is an exterior lighting product for walkways, gardens, landscape and urban use. It is a cast concrete form with an integral light source.
It was developed for Moredesign.es against a brief to deliver – ‘a free standing set in sand, and in green areas (flower beds, vegetation areas) The form should be sculptural and made of a pure material as in raw brass, wood, ceramic, metal, stone but purist design and not fussy’
When Moredesign came to me with the brief I decided to collaborate with an old friend of mine Tom who is also a product designer. We had been planning to work on a project together for a while and this seemed a natural brief to look at. We began with a big sheet of paper and a cup of tea and worked out a few forms based on the brief. Having chosen a form we drove to the local river bed and selected a selection of river smoothed rocks to work with. We then diamond cut these to make a mock up. Once we were happy with the form we made a few cardboard mock ups to check light distribution from 4 fittings using led tape as a temporary light source.
Once we had finalised and proved the design we sent a 3d printed model to the client for approval. Oro was happy with the form but wanted to feel it as real concrete. A further 4 part 3d printed mould later and we cast our first concrete fitting. I lugged this out to Ibiza in my suitcase and the client was delighted and placed an order.
The fittings are hand cast in moulds here in France and are then broken from the mould and hand finished, assembled and tested.
The hand made process allows the texture and colour to be chosen, and means we can add pebbles, colours, oyster shells to the mix. The original concept allowed hemp cable woven through raw steel chain to supply the power fitting to fitting. This chain then sinks into the sand and allows the fittings to be simply placed on the beach as required.
The light source is a custom CNC cut brass housing with a strip of 2700k LED encapsulated beneath resin to give IP67. The light source clips into the shell making it easy to replace in the event of a failure and means the fittings are recylable. The direct light distribution floods out at 180 degree giving excellent lighting to driveways and paths at wide centres, and the secondary indirect light gives light to facades and avoids the ‘dark face’ associated with some other floor wash fittings. They are powered from an IP rated 12v power supply or we offer them with our plug and play solar panel and battery kit with automated control, on at dusk.
Moredesign are delighted with the result and have just put us forward for another project for a beach club for Pacha in Mykonos.
