lucept’s 1,000th blog post: an interview with george craford
A very special piece for you today: To celebrate Lucept’s 1,000th post exploring the future of architectural lighting, let’s momentarily turn our gaze from the future to appreciate one of the most consequential innovations to impact not only lighting, but … Continue reading lucept’s 1,000th blog post: an interview with george craford
firefly synchronization and simulation
Some beautiful inspiration for biomimetic lighting. Check out this fascinating simulation of how swarms of fireflies synchronize themselves in nature. This core observation of how “small scale interactions drive large-scale organization” seems prophetic for how architectural lighting control systems need … Continue reading firefly synchronization and simulation
the virtual production of the mandalorian, season two
Large format LED screen technology coupled with live rendering is advancing so fast that it’s going to soon “trickle down” and make a dramatic impact on architectural design and architectural placemaking. Our architectural places will blur the distinction between “real … Continue reading the virtual production of the mandalorian, season two
george mueller, R.I.P.
Very sad news: George Mueller, cofounder of Color Kinetics, has passed away unexpectedly at the age of 50, as confirmed by the CEO of Ecosense, another company also founded by George. I had the great fortune of working briefly under … Continue reading george mueller, R.I.P.
LED spaghetti
I came across this fun video of a guy who found the raw, flexible LED “filament” commonly used in old-school style Edison bulbs – which have already been around now a long time. And of course, those LED filament bulbs … Continue reading LED spaghetti
nth degree
Updating a blog post I wrote waaaay back in 2012, I once again came across Arizona-based Nth Degree and their unique line of LED flexible backlighting technology based on layers of micro-sized LED die – almost like “LED dust” embedded … Continue reading nth degree
mechanical characterization of structured sheet materials
Cool video from Disney’s R&D group on structural properties of pattern making. Some very cool inspiration for 3D printed lighting components and fixture systems! Continue reading mechanical characterization of structured sheet materials
materiom
I came across this very interesting startup organization called Materiom focused on documenting and measuring natural material recipes for construction and product development. According to their site: Materiom provides open source recipes and data on materials made from abundant sources … Continue reading materiom
kinetica living patterns – unreal engine
There is something about this video of a plugin for Unreal Engine that really inspires me, relating back to my work on embedded lighting and luminous patterns. The setup is beautiful and the motion is hypnotic… Continue reading kinetica living patterns – unreal engine
schneider electric buys dc systems
In what seems like a huge affirmation for the future of DC power for commercial construction projects, global behemoth Schneider Electric just purchased Dutch startup DC Systems. Check out my previous blog posts on the transformation to DC power plus … Continue reading schneider electric buys dc systems
circular economy approaches in lighting design
Check out this very nicely constructed presentation on engaging with circular economy design principles in architectural lighting projects from Mark Ridler, Head of Lighting Design at BDP, a global architecture/engineering design firm. From this year’s LpS Digital Symposium (associated with … Continue reading circular economy approaches in lighting design
using a LED panel as a photography softbox
The global pandemic has driven video communications to the forefront…and also the need for good lighting for photography and videography. In my office I recently upgraded 4 ancient fluorescent 2’x2’/60×60 troffers (so ancient they still had magnetic ballasts and starters!) … Continue reading using a LED panel as a photography softbox
studio philip ross
Philip Ross is a Dutch designer with an industrial design education and research background spanning both TU/Delft and TU/Eindhoven. Over the years Ross has created some very interesting experiments exploring how to use various forms of touch to control (or … Continue reading studio philip ross
stormbell 80 by LAMP
Barcelona-based lighting manufacturer Lamp recently launched a pendant fixture called Stormbell 80 that offers sustainable material options for the conical reflector shade, providing 3 different style options for solving the problem of acoustic-absorption. They offer recycled cork, bio-fiber hemp and … Continue reading stormbell 80 by LAMP
lightguide tech application brief
In case you want to get serious with the science of light guides, I found this excellent document from Agilent Technologies dating back to 2001. A thorough yet approachable technical explanation to the science of designing light pipes or light … Continue reading lightguide tech application brief
DIY artificial sun
Check out this really clever and well-produced video from YouTuber DIY Perks of how to build an “artificial sun” effect: One of the best and most understandable discussions of daylight that I’ve seen yet. Indeed, this combination of two key … Continue reading DIY artificial sun
3D printing by julia koerner
Salzburg designer Julia Koerner was recently featured in Dezeen for her fantastic explorations of 3D printing in architectural and fashion applications. Most notably was her costume creations for Marvel’s Black Panther. I don’t know her personally, but I certainly love … Continue reading 3D printing by julia koerner
PNNL report on DC-powered lighting and microgrids
Researchers Gabe Arnold and Grace Pennell from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory recently released a white paper titled DC Lighting and Building Microgrids: Opportunities and Recommendations. They conduct an excellent review of the advantages of DC-power (which closely mirrors my … Continue reading PNNL report on DC-powered lighting and microgrids
lumencache lighting
LumenCache Lighting is an another interesting entrant to the DC-power revolution, focusing on residential lighting applications. LumenCache has developed a solution with a patch-panel style configuration that can accept a variety of driver or control modules – at the panel … Continue reading lumencache lighting
unreal engine: virtual production lighting
Unreal Engine released some “bonus content” that follows up on my previous post covering the state of live-rendering technology. A fascinating discussion from movie producers, but with clear and profound considerations for the future of architectural lighting: Continue reading unreal engine: virtual production lighting
