Thorn Lighting by Yılmaz Dogan is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2019 Silver A' Design Award in Lighting Products and Fixtures Design Competition Category.
SilverLighting· 2019
Thorn Lighting
by Yılmaz Dogan
Client: Qzens
Silver A' Design Award Winner in Lighting Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #76644The Design
About Thorn Lighting
Believing that it is possible to grow and differentiate organic forms in nature without disturbing their structure and expression by coincidences, and that human beings have an instinctive affinity for natural forms, Yılmaz Dogan said that while designing Thorn, he wanted to reflect growth with forms that emulate nature without any dimension limitation in illumination. Thorn, which is a source of inspiration for a natural branch of Thorn; grows in a random structure and forms natural, meets different needs and has no size limit as a good lighting design.
The Recognition
About the Silver A' Design Award
Thorn Lighting is a Silver A' Design Award winner, an extraordinarily prestigious recognition granted to top-of-the-line, gorgeous, and impressive designs. Silver winners are tremendously brilliant and exceedingly creative works that illustrate the outstanding expertise, talent, and acuity of their designers. Thorn Lighting is expected to be a wonderful, showpiece work that is remarkably professional and profoundly innovative. This Silver A' Design Award-winning design is a highly notable, admired invention that benefits and advances the boundaries of art, science, design, and technology. Thorn Lighting is a vastly envied creation that evokes desires, introduces positive feelings, and sparks amazement and wonderment.
Where to Get It
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Grand Interview
Your innovative approach to biophilic design in Thorn Lighting, drawing inspiration from natural branch structures, represents a fascinating intersection of nature and technology – could you elaborate on how this organic inspiration influenced your technical solutions for the lighting system?
Nature was not used as a decorative reference but as a structural principle. Instead of copying the appearance of branches and thorns, I studied how they grow, connect, and create resilient systems through simple rules. This inspired a modular lighting structure that appears organic while remaining highly rational in production. The contrast between sharp silhouettes and soft illumination became the project's defining idea, transforming a symbol of protection and resilience into an object that brings warmth, atmosphere, and emotional value to architectural spaces.
The minimalist engineering of Thorn Lighting, utilizing just two different parts to create infinite possibilities, is remarkably elegant – what were the key challenges in achieving such complexity through simplicity, and how did your background in civil engineering inform this solution?
The greatest challenge was reducing the system to only two components without limiting its creative potential. Every element had to perform multiple structural and visual functions while remaining easy to manufacture and assemble. My civil engineering background strongly influenced this process by encouraging efficiency through geometry rather than complexity. Like structural systems in architecture, a limited number of precisely designed elements can generate countless stable configurations with minimal material and maximum flexibility.
The 120-degree angle appears consistently in nature, from honeycomb structures to beech leaves, and you have incorporated this into Thorn Lighting's backbone structure – could you share the research journey that led to this critical geometric decision?
The decision to use a 120-degree geometry emerged after studying recurring patterns in nature, from branching systems to cellular formations. I was fascinated by how this angle repeatedly appears where efficiency, balance, and growth coexist. Rather than treating geometry as decoration, I adopted it as the project's structural language. It allows each module to expand naturally in multiple directions while preserving visual harmony, making every composition appear spontaneous despite being governed by precise geometric logic.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- Thorn eliminates dimensional and formal limits and makes lighting installations possible in any dimension and form. Composed of only two different pieces, it offers a limitless diversity of form and a freedom of sizing in lighting design and production. The sculptural stance and dynamic structure differentiate it from every angle. This way, it can transform into any size and form in any kind of living space and meet diverse lighting needs. Thorn harmonizes random installations with innovation.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Since one of Thorn's main ideas is being dimensionless, it is not possible to define its sizes. It is possible to produce in different lengths, areas and volumes from 1 meter to 5, 10, 20, 30 meters, from 1 square meter to 20,10,100,200 square meters and from 1 cubic meter to 5,10,15 cubic meters. The boxed shipment of these products can be made freely as assembled or unassembled.
- Tags
- Lighting, Infinity, Thorn, Qzens, Wood, Steel, Modern, Minimalism, Installation, Innovation
- Production Technology
- Thorn is designed to maximize possible forms with fewest elements. It consists of a combination of only two different parts, while offering an unlimited form diversity and freedom of infinite dimensioning in lighting design and production. The backbone piece with 3 openings joining at 120 degrees constitutes the main structure, and it interlocks with the gear system. The sticks creating thorn figure are built by light massive wood lathe.
- Design Challenge
- The biggest challenge here was the form of the main backbone structure, which could form a large structure. Many forms have been tried to capture the right angle. In nature, we observed a 120 degree angle in many structures, from honeycombing to beech leaves. The main backbone part was a 3-span form and structure that best match the random results with 120-degree arms and geared connections.
- Research
- The research began by imitating a piece of thorn branch merged with the question of "how can we overcome the differentiation of dimension, form and shape with the least number of piece?". While the size and form change in lighting products required new raw material inputs and design processes, Thorn allowed us to create an illumination that could offer endless combinations with only two parts.
- Inspiration
- The growth and differentiation of organic forms in nature without disrupting their holistic structures and expressions is possible by the randomness in their existence. Due to biophilia, humans have an instinctive intimacy for natural forms. This feeling of intimacy is one of the basic elements of inner peace. Thorn's main inspiration was the idea of reflecting lighting with forms that emulate the nature to grow without any size limit.
- Project Duration
- The project was originally designed as a raw idea sketch in 2015 and put on hold. It was re-interpreted in February 2018 and completed in September 2018 in Ankara. In November 2018, we participated in Design Week Turkey with this project.
- Operation Flow
- With Thorn, you can create horizontal surfaces, curvilinear structures, bifurcated and branched structures or complex organic-geometric forms and parametric and symmetric surfaces. Thorn separates lighting elements and light bulbs with stick-shaped, lathed parts and creates contrasts by adding different projectional shadows to the space.
- Patents
- Protection Type: Utility Model
Application Number: 2018/15998
File Number: 2018-Ge-454153
Invention Title: Decorative Lighting System
Invention classification: G06t 15/50
Protection Type: Design Registration
Application Number : 2018/06353
Registration Number: 2018 06353
Bulletin Number: 306
Application Date: 25.10.2018
Registration Date: 25.10.2018
Bulletin Date: 10.12.2018
PCT Submission Number: 050102
PCT Application Number: Pct / Tr2019/050102
PCT Reference : Py2018-15998 - Team Members
- Yılmaz Dogan
- Image Credits
- Image courtesy of QZENS Furniture & Design
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