Gold Lighting Products and Fixtures Design · 2020
Nuvem Decorative Lighting Solution
- A' Design Award 2020 Gold Winner in Lighting Products and Fixtures Design
- Awarded April 15, 2020
- CLIENT: Arruda Arquitectos Associados, Lda
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 45,153
- Verification code 91979B8444 · Verify this award
About Nuvem Decorative Lighting Solution
Nuvem is a modular decorative lighting system designed for interior spaces. Nuvem consists of hexagonal modules that are joined together to form many different compositions. Each module measures 12 by 12 by 4 centimetres and is made of Opalflex, a recyclable material composed of technopolymer and glass crystals. The thin sheets are cold cut and then folded by hand. Four suspension cables per hexagon allow horizontal, oblique and vertical arrangements. The light source can be placed above the modules, below them or threaded through the hexagonal openings.
Miguel Arruda's Nuvem Decorative Lighting Solution represents a distinguished achievement within contemporary lighting design, demonstrating the creative potential that emerges when functional illumination transcends utility to become sculptural installation. The work engages with longstanding traditions of bringing natural phenomena into architectural interiors, here manifesting clouds as aggregations of delicate translucent modules that appear to drift weightlessly through double-height space. The designer's approach reveals sophisticated understanding of modular systems and parametric thinking, each individual element contributing to emergent formal complexity that exceeds the sum of component parts while maintaining manufacturing feasibility and installation flexibility. The technical accomplishment resides in the material selection and connection methodology that enables these extensive formations to achieve visual lightness despite considerable physical presence, the translucent quality of each module creating subtle luminosity gradations that animate the overall surface. Compositionally, the installation demonstrates awareness of how suspended sculptural presence transforms spatial perception, the cloud formations establishing intimate zones within larger architectural volumes while maintaining visual connectivity throughout the environment. The chromatic restraint to predominantly white tones proves essential to the cloud metaphor's success, allowing natural and artificial light to become the primary chromatic variable as illumination conditions shift throughout the day. Thematically, the work invites contemplation of boundaries between natural and artificial, organic and manufactured, functional and poetic, suggesting that contemporary design practice can honor both practical requirements and imaginative aspiration. The installation context, appearing to be a library or study environment, amplifies these associations, positioning the work where contemplative thought and intellectual pursuit benefit from environments that inspire wonder. One might consider how such installations transform not merely the visual character of spaces but the experiential quality of time spent within them, inviting viewers to pause, observe, and perhaps discover in manufactured clouds something of the reverie that natural skies have always inspired.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The Nuvem design consists of an handcrafted lamp of hexagonal modules connected to create infinite configurations, easily adaptable to any space.The development took inspiration from a 70 s sculpture witch conjures the female form.The light source can be placed anywhere.The upper placement creates dramatic shadows and plays of light, lower is optimum for illuminating surfaces below and horizontal placement is achieved by threading spotlights through the modules hexagonal openings.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- The initial module is made of opalflex, a recyclable material composed of technopolymer and glass crystals and has a dimension of 12 x 12 x 4 cm.
The base exagone composed of 96 modules has a dimension of 102cm x 94cm.
The hexagonal modules connect with each other to create customized compositions adapted to the context in which they are inserted.
The product packaging is only 8cm thick. - Tags
- lamp, ceiling, light, module, light system, Lighting, decorative
- Production Technology
- Consists in an artisan technique starting with a sheet of millimetre-thin, technopolymer that undergoes cold cutting, producing 0 co2.The hand-folded three dimensional elements are connected in hexagonal modules in turn connected to create shapes, adaptable to any space.The light source can be placed anywhere.Above creating dramatic shadows and plays of light, under for illuminating surfaces below, and horizontal placement achieved by threading lights through the modules hexagonal openings.
- Design Challenge
- The concept of spatial development of the hexagonal module, horizontally or vertically,whether inside or outside,needed a certain level of flexibility in order to respond to the intense deformation of the projected surfaces. The experiments carried out with a technical team led us to choose the opalplex a recyclable material, composed of technopolymers and glass crystals developed by Slamp.This was one of the most significant aspects, from a creative and technological point.The Nuvem level of flexibility is one of the most important characteristics of the concept of spatial development.
- Project Duration
- This project started to be developed in November 2017 in Pomezia, Italy and ended in March 2019 and was presented in April 2019 at the Milan Fair.
- Operation Flow
- The hexagonal modules are joined together in order to create infinite compositions that can be developed horizontally, obliquely and vertically according to the movement of the four suspension cables belonging to each hexagon, thus responding to all spatial circumstances.
- Research
- Inspired by a sculpture that explored the anthropomorphic design of the female form, the Nuvem design consists of an handcrafted lamp of millimetre-thin technopolymer hexagonal modules connected to create infinite configurations, easily adaptable to any space.The dimensional versatility, required in-depth studies on the characteristics of the material to be used.The option was the opalflex, a recycled material, composed of technopolymers and glass crystals.
- Inspiration
- This project originates from a sculpture made in the 70s.
The sculpture explored the anthropomorphic design of the woman s body shapes.Started from a two-dimensional drawing of these shapes on metallic surfaces, which by means of cuts and folds took on a three-dimensional form (sculpture).The production technique follows the same concept, replacing the metal surface of the 70s sculpture with a sheet of millimetre-thin, technopolymer. The sheet undergoes cold cutting, and is then folded by hand. - Image Credits
- Image 1:Pedro Sadio, Image 2: Pedro Sadio, Image 3: Thomas Pagani, Image 4: Thomas Pagani, Image 5: Thomas Pagani
Colors of Nuvem Decorative Lighting Solution
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