Design rationale

The concept and design behind the Mzanzi metal light was inspired by the Nama Karoo bio-me. The aim was to extract features which were obvious to the eye from plants to inspire my design  for an ambient sheet metal light and create distinct design details with them.

The plant which inspired my design was a wild aloe cactus, the leaves/petals are sharp and triangular shaped and has thorny and prickly like features. Openwork decorations in the light replicates these features and accentuates these characteristics from the plant well over the surface area of the light.

The triangular openwork shaped decorations range from big to small, starting from the bottom and gradually decreasing in size towards the top of the light as the plant does with its leaves/petals. The light creates a lovely geometric shaped pattern and theme which  bursts with ambient light to all corners of the room.