This is a project I undertook as part of a 4 month long exchange program to Hochschule Ostwestfalen Lippe, Detmold in Germany.
The aim of this project was to choose a local industry or workshop from the area and try and develop a product, a furniture piece or a lamp using the materials and processes available in that industry.
I chose a local company called CU Kunstoffe Gmbh in Lage near Detmold. They mainly processed acrylic and other thermoplasts to form various products like signboards, menu stands and even a few small scale endeavours. The processes they used were heat bending and vaccuum forming and other product finishing methods.
The concept was to exploit the edge-glowing property and weather resistance of acrylic. I decided to make a garden lamp, that was easy to produce on a large scale and thus cheap and affordable.
Paper models of possible ideas.
A paper model that inspired the final concept.
I decided to make the lamp solar powered since it was a garden lamp, and solar power would make a viable option for an alternative energy source. I dismantled an existing solar lamp and used the photovoltaic cells and the electrical equipment from there.
The photovoltaic cell has an inbuilt sensor that switches on the LEDs when the sun goes down. Thus there is no need to switch on these lamps.
A switch on the side can be used to switch off the whole circuit. A detail of how I fitted the LEDs to sit on the acrylic edge.
A view from the bottom shows the electricals inside the product.
The size of the lamp and the use of LEDs does not allow it to light up much area of the garden. However, it is more of a mood lighting, where multiple lamps would automatically light up every evening, with the setting of the sun, giving the garden a soft glow.
I thus decided to call the product "Glow".
A poster I made for my presentation explaining the product and the solar aspect of it.
I also made a sectional drawing of how the final product would be constructed.
Both in German.
We also had a small exhibition of all the products designed in that course in the Landesmuseum in Detmold.
