Not all lamps have to conform to basic shapes or even reality.
Lamps bring light to houses and rooms, but that’s not the only thing they can offer. With their own design and personality, they can change the tone of a room as effectively as their lights. They can convey a sense of serenity or calculating precision, warmth or cold, minimalism or extravagance. Lamps can take many forms and take inspiration from many sources, showcasing nature’s innate beauty or mankind’s acquired artistry. They can also become messengers of whimsy, playfulness, and even dreams, like a pendant and wall lamp that almost keeps you on the edge of your seat, waiting for the delicate bubble to pop and scatter in the wind.
Designer: Sunriu
It’s not difficult to deduce the inspiration for this work of art that’s also meant to be a design for an actual lamp. Many of us would have had fond memories of blowing bubbles through circular devices, sometimes screaming in glee as each ephemeral sphere floated and then popped. There is something otherworldly about bubbles as they display the different colors of the rainbow on their translucent surfaces. Our hazy childhood memories of these playful times even add to the fanciful imagery of bubbles.
It is that emotion that the Air-Shape concept design tries to capture in an almost ethereal manner. It’s as if the bubble is frozen in time, stuck at the moment of its birth when it wavers and trembles against gentle winds until it takes its final spherical shape. Its form has an element of uncertainty and fragility that also sends a message of potential and birthing. A bubble doesn’t simply come out perfectly formed from a flat, soapy surface, after all.
Naturally, glass would be the perfect material to bring this idea to life. Iridescent glass, in particular, captures the prismatic qualities of the bubble’s surface, while traditional glass blowing methods could help create the random yet gentle bumps of the Air-Shape’s bubble-inspired form. The metal ring not only serves as the visual portal from which the delicate shape rises but also houses the actual lighting that sets the mood for this fixture.
The Air-Shape lamp can be hung in different ways. It can turn any wall into a magical surface that is seemingly capable of generating dreams and flights of fancy. Hanging above tables or heads, the lamp creates a light and fun atmosphere that reflects its own whimsical design. Whichever way you place it, the lighting is sure to change the room’s tone the moment light starts to dance on its glass surface.
Air-Shape is definitely a striking concept for a pendant lamp or a wall lamp, one that could prove tricky to pull off in reality. It is almost as if the very lamp itself is too delicate to bring into the real world, blessed and cursed to remain as a figment of our imagination. It is the stuff that dreams are made of, just like rainbows and bubbles.