Together with Ettore Verdiani, I carried out a project for sustainable lighting, to reduce pollution and the use of resources.
To do this, we researched and experimented with various ways to reintegrate post-consumer plastic material. Thus, understanding waste as a resource, without losing technical and performance qualities.
The work of recovering post-consumer plastics makes it possible to go from waste to granules from which, through heat, beautiful sheets are obtained. This transformation process can also be called an ‘up cycle’.
To arrive at using this regenerated material as a lampshade for a pendant lamp, we designed and prototyped various models. We tried out various different curvature angles in an initial sketching phase.
Also important was the design phase of nesting the piece to be curved from a square-shaped sheet, this process was then developed with two different shapes to be able to create as little waste as possible from the sheet.
The volumes were then modelled using small-scale cardboard prototypes. At this stage, it was interesting to observe how many different shapes could be generated from a flat surface by means of curvature alone. From the many shapes, we selected three on which to carry out the project.
We made prototypes by testing various plastics and in the end the transparent and coloured PET one proved to be the most suitable for this application.
The effect in contact with light creates a shiny shell surface that varies from more transparent parts to more opaque parts. This generates different ambiences and can also be adjusted according to the environment in which it is placed because, the greater the distance from the light source, the less coloured the effect will be around the lamp.
The project was concluded by making the pendant lamp functional as well as being able to be reproduced with various different textures.
The plates change colours and patterns each time, which makes it possible to generate endless colour and aesthetic variations on the three designed and manufactured lampshade models.
