Acrylic in architecture
Plexiglas and light are the ideal combination for creating decorative compositions that surprise with their novelty and creativity. Light radiation acquires a magical shine when reflected in glossy or matte acrylic glass. Light has the ability to penetrate the structure of acrylic, merge with it, forming a completely new “element” that can be admired forever. The technique of combining acrylic and light is used by many modern innovative designers who create extraordinary lamps from plexiglass.
Light geometry: plexiglass lamps from Carlo Bernardini
Italian artist Carlo Bernardini became famous for his light masterpieces created using fiber optic cables. In some works, the artist uses angular blanks of transparent acrylic glass. To see the clear shape of the light geometric shapes, you need to choose a strictly defined point of view. Otherwise, the fiber optic threads look like a chaotic glowing labyrinth. The sculptures are extremely popular all over the world and are considered an example of an innovative approach to creating design compositions.
Art installation Fish Bellies: exclusive plexiglass lamps
American designers Joe O'Connell and Blessing Hancock created an extraordinary lighting composition, each element of which has a ring shape and consists of several layers of matte acrylic. Multi-colored acrylic elements look like glowing fish. The frame of the structure is made of steel, LED lamps are used for lighting. Lighting modes can be changed using the touch control system. To place their masterpiece, the authors of the project chose the park of the University of San Marcos, Texas, USA.
According to the designers, the plexiglass lamps contain symbolic meaning: The installation demonstrates the similarity of the richness of biological processes occurring in the nearby San Marcos River and the diversity of the student community. Students enjoy spending time near the Fish Bellies, climbing to the upper levels of the structure, relaxing inside the rings, and perhaps reflecting on the unity of humanity with nature. Being in a kind of niche, the student maintains his individual space without moving away from society - this is how Joe OConnell and Blessing Hancock see the installation. Today, the composition is not only a symbol of the college town in San Marcos, but a world-famous sculpture.
A labyrinth of rainbow plexiglass lamps in China
In the city of Hainan (China), a unique LED installation with plexiglass lamps “YǓZHÒU” was created. The project was implemented for the exhibition “Luneng Sanya Bay Light and Art Festival”. The 2.5-meter-high structure looks like a labyrinth, consisting of acrylic panels covered with self-adhesive film of various colors. Due to the presence of this film, a bright rainbow glow appears. The colors change as participants move through the maze.
The panels are also decorated with milled patterns in the form of circles. LED radiation illuminates these elements. Numerous shining circles have a visual resemblance to soap bubbles. Ribbon light sources are located at the base of plexiglass lamps. Acrylic panels located around the perimeter of the installation are covered with a mirror reflective film, creating the effect of infinite space.
Mirror surfaces, rainbow colors, light from plexiglass lamps with changing shades - all this forms an amazing, mesmerizing picture and makes the installation truly unique.
Exclusive lamps made of plexiglass to order
In addition to the world-famous designer light installations presented above, there is huge amount other modifications of lamps that cause delight and deserve your attention. Let's take a closer look at the review of creative plexiglass lamps. Our company is ready to bring any of these ideas to life.
Wave-shaped lamps made of molded plexiglass
The visual impression is created that the lamps are made of a thin luminous canvas fluttering in the wind. But this is not frozen fabric, but thin plexiglass processed by thermal molding. For the manufacture of asymmetrical lamps, manual thermoforming is used: the workpiece is heated in an oven, becomes plastic - in this state it can be given any shape. Working with thin plexiglass is not easy, one wrong move can lead to defects, but our specialists have extensive experience in performing such operations. Thanks to the professionalism of our company’s craftsmen, we can produce wave-shaped lamps with unique, complex shapes.
Block lamps
Such lamps are dominated by strict lines and shapes. The main structural elements are rectangular blocks made of transparent or colored plexiglass. There are many design options: the blocks can be single or combined with each other into one design composition. From rectangular blocks you can make a night light, table lamp, floor lamp, sconce or chandelier. A pattern or texture can be engraved on the surface of the plexiglass - such decor shines softly in the rays of LED lighting.
Sphere and hemisphere lamps
Using plexiglass blowing technology, we can produce spherical and hemispherical lamps of any color and size. We blow not only regular shapes, but also hemispheres in the form of flat lenses, egg-shaped structures, hemispheres with an oval or rectangular base, etc. By gluing two halves, we produce spherical lamps of various types.
Exclusive lamps of original shapes
Plexiglas lamps can have the most unexpected shapes. Our capabilities allow us to implement bold design solutions. In our work we use modern technologies processing of plexiglass on CNC machines - milling, engraving, chemical gluing, thermoforming in an oven on dies, vacuum forming, blowing, bending, polishing.
We work with both transparent and colored plexiglass from leading European manufacturers. Therefore, if you are looking for a responsible contractor for the manufacture of a lamp unusual shape, contact us!
The AkrilChic company produces original custom-made plexiglass lamps of any complexity. Our talented designers generate amazing ideas, the implementation of which is carried out in our own manufacturing plant companies. To become a co-author and participant in the exciting process of giving birth to an acrylic masterpiece, just call us. We will make your dream come true!
Creation date: JAN 31, 2016 Author "Akrilshik"Completed works
Transparent chandeliers for exhibition
Transparent chandeliers for the exhibition “Smells. The invisible beauty of St. Petersburg"
Bridge construction
Manufacturing and installation of a bridge in the shopping center "European"
Acrylic waterfall on glass
Innovative waterfall in the terminal of the Vnukovo airport complex
Illustration: Polina Breeva
Starts on September 26 in Moscow international festival"Circle of Light" As the organizers promise, during the event, lighting designers and professionals in the field of 2D and 3D graphics will show multimedia and light installations in the architectural space of Moscow. Let's figure out how this grand show works. Let's start in order.
Lighting design is the development and design of lighting and light environment for a specific space or object, taking into account the aesthetic perception of the object (for example, if a building stands out with its beautiful bas-relief, it must be emphasized with the help of light and shadow), its ergonomic aspect (lighting functionality, the ability of light to influence on comfort, performance and general condition of a person) and energy efficiency (are there any over-lit areas, is the lighting standard exceeded according to the documents, etc.).
Many people love to walk around Moscow at night - it becomes very beautiful and spectacular. This is mainly due to the lighting designers. Highlight Bolshoi Theater so that it looks even more beautiful, to create a cozy soft light in the alleys of Gorky Park - this is all their task.
2D and 3D graphics are two-dimensional and three-dimensional graphics, respectively. The letter D comes from the English dimensions – measurement, that is, literally “2 dimensions” and “3 dimensions”. This computer graphics, that is, computers create and synthesize an image, and then process the visual and visual information, obtained from real world. That is, the way St. Basil's Cathedral is destroyed and built right before your eyes is simulated on a computer, using the real architecture of the cathedral.
Lighting designers and graphic artists create light installations - a key element of the festival. A light installation is a spatial composition created from various light elements and representing a single whole. Lamps, spotlights, projectors, lasers - this is what the technical part of the light installation consists of.
The entire composition “comes to life” thanks to video mapping (3D mapping) – 3D projection onto a physical object environment taking into account its geometry and location in space.
For video mapping, a computer 3D model of the object on which the projection is planned is required. It is created by engineers visiting the site. They photograph it and take measurements. If the object is relatively simple, then photographs and measurements are sufficient; if not, specialists are needed to conduct a full laser scan of the building.
The resulting model is then subjected to the changes planned in the script on a computer. Based on the measurements obtained, the number of projectors required in the installation is also calculated. For example, the façade of the main pavilion at VDNKh requires 18 projectors. By the way, video mapping requires extremely powerful technology. For comparison - street lamp this is 210 lumens, and a projector in a light installation starts from 20,000 lumens.
Another important stage work - bringing the picture into one whole. Each projector shows part of the image, they overlap each other and need to be adjusted according to indicators - brightness, saturation.
But why do all these images seem real to us? First of all, you need to remember the trick: 3D video mapping can be seen without special glasses, but only from a certain position. If a person moves, his angle of view changes and the effect disappears.
In general, the mechanism is as follows - instead of simultaneously viewing the image, the video signal is split into two color channels (usually red and blue). A dynamic flat color monocular image is processed in such a way that a constant video signal is supplied to one eye (for example, the red channel), and a signal with a short time delay from the changed dynamic scene is supplied to the second (blue channel). Due to the movement of objects in the scene, human brain gets a “volumetric image” (but only if the foreground objects are either shifted or rotated - a smooth change of position allows you to maintain the connection between the images and their position in space, without changing the time interval).
Natalya Zhabina, Children's center scientific discoveries"InnoPark"
About "City Physics"
Every day, when we wake up in the morning, we are immersed in a city full of textures, sounds and colors. While we go to work and walk in the park, a million questions come to our minds about how everything around us works in this huge metropolis. Why under us when a metro train passes under us? And can it happen in Moscow? What are people from outer space like?
Nowadays, no one will be surprised that LED light bulbs can be used not only to illuminate rooms, but also to create amazing light sculptures. But seeing one of these installations with your own eyes is like magic. We invite you to immediately plunge into the world of light and art and look at the interesting light sculptures created by contemporary artists over the past few years.
LED flower field in Australia
The author who created such an amazing outdoor LED show was the famous British contemporary artist named Bruce Munro. The light installation opened in April 2016 and is located in National Park Australia.
Near one of the park’s rocks, Bruce occupied an entire field, which was filled with light sculptures in the form of flowers. These flowers are made of LEDs, in daytime they are charged with sunlight- this is what allows them to glow in the dark.
3D light installation in Hong Kong
Artist Jim Campbell, who creates LED light installations, staged one in Hong Kong in 2014. For a week, the city square of Edinburgh Place was illuminated by a grid of more than one and a half thousand LED flickering bulbs, creating a unique fairy-tale atmosphere in the city.
The length of this structure was about five meters. If you look at the grid from afar, you could notice interesting lighting effects: the flickering of the light bulbs did not occur randomly, but according to a certain pattern - the extinguished lights formed the dark silhouettes of passersby hurrying past. The flickering of the light bulbs was controlled using a computer program.
Giant light bulbs in Lyon
Light installations became a feature of 2014 - another one took place in December in Lyon, France. The installation was accompanied by a bright and large-scale light show. Nine huge light bulbs, the size of a large car, were installed on an area the size of a football field.
The light sculptures are stylized not like more modern fluorescent and LED light bulbs, but like incandescent lamps. The main theme of the installation is the relationship between man and electricity.
Light sculptures in the form of prisms in Montreal
In late 2014, Toronto-based design studio RAW mounted an installation in Montreal of fifty rotating two-metre glass prisms. Colored light effects on the prisms were made using built-in light projectors that illuminated each prism: the walls of the prisms, in turn, were covered with a special film that reflected the visible radiation of the spectrum.
This light installation attracted the attention of both adults and children - they especially liked to rotate the light sculptures, the bell ringing when untwisted.
Christmas tree made from plastic bags in the UK
On the one hand, Christmas is a wonderful and bright time that is pleasant to spend with those closest to you, but on the other hand, the entire holiday season is shrouded in huge spending and consumerism. In 2013, the art collective Luzinterruptus from Madrid decided to draw attention to Christmas shopaholism with the help of the “Consumer Christmas Tree” erected in the English city of Durham - a cone-shaped light sculpture constructed from thousands of colored plastic bags. It would seem even a masterpiece made from garbage can be done!
In just one week, volunteers helped assemble the giant conical structure and set up the tree's lighting. The same bags were used to decorate Christmas light garlands strung between houses. The period of construction of the tree coincided with a strike by workers of waste collection companies in Madrid, so the artists presented the tree as a symbol of solidarity with the workers.
LED star in Malaysia
In 2015, Malaysian artist Zhong Hao Ong installed a light sculpture in the form of a giant ten-pointed star in one of the unfinished buildings in the city of Butterworth. The light figure is designed in such a way that its rays occupy four floors of the building, as if piercing right through it. The art installation “Star” consists of steel cables and five hundred meters of LED strip.
Butterworth was once one of the wealthiest ports in the country. Nowadays, the components required to create LED light bulbs are produced here, so Zhong Hao Ong considers his installation symbolic for the city, opening a glimpse of a new future.
Glowing mangrove forest in Sydney
In 2015, students and staff from the Abidian School of Architecture at Bond University in Australia created this stunningly beautiful light installation that looks like a bioluminescent mangrove forest. This art installation is reminiscent of the fairy-tale nature of the moon Pandora from famous movie"Avatar" by James Cameron.
These light sculptures follow the contours of Australian mangrove forests with their spreading branches and overgrown roots, creating a fascinating environment for adults and children to watch the LED “trees” change color. The light sculptures were highly appreciated by the public - over 50 thousand people came to see the light show on the opening evening.
Solar powered light sculptures in Portland
In Portland, Oregon, an art installation was staged in 2013, intended to provide people with a distraction from pressing problems - that was the idea, according to artist Dan Corson.
The open-air light sculptures in this installation are reminiscent of pitcher plants - exotically shaped tropical insectivorous plants with long stems and a “pitcher” at the end. The height of the light figures reaches as much as five meters. The basis of each sculpture is a steel frame with LEDs. The shape of each “flower” is fiberglass, each of them is illuminated different colors. But the most interesting thing is that the energy of LEDs comes not from electrical power, but from solar panels.
Thousands of glowing roses in Hong Kong
Many light installations are based on such beautiful and win-win objects as flowers - this light show in Hong Kong was no exception. The scale of the installation is amazing - 25 thousand LED roses were “planted” in the city park in winter. These light sculptures were placed contemporary artist Jang Yong Jin from the Pancom creative team.
This light show called “Light Rose Garden” was dedicated to the Valentine’s Day - Valentine's Day.
Huge Illumination Park in Dubai
Dubai Garden Glow Illumination Park in Dubai, UAE - a light show that you can watch all year round. There you can see a variety of light installations and the lighting effects used in them. The park opened at the end of 2015 and is one of the largest illuminated parks in the world - an application for this has already been submitted to the Guinness Book of Records.
The light sculptures in this park represent animals and flora: there are fabulous trees and flowers, elephants, pandas, swans, giraffes, even dinosaurs. It is noteworthy that all these sculptures are made from recycled material, and only energy-efficient light bulbs are used to create the bright neon light.