For a dreamlike atmosphere in outdoor spaces, one that makes you feel as though you have your own “constellation” right on your doorstep, Kaleidolight – a combination of the words kaleidoscope and light – can make all the difference.
It is an interactive lighting application that can produce this wonderful effect, made up of a large number of glass tubes, in different colours or in the same colour.
Architects commonly work with light in combination with glass, as it allows them to achieve visual transparency. Kaleidolight, however, explores the potential of glass as an intermediary lighting element, based on its ability to conduct light.
In essence, the proposal develops a wall concept based on the accumulation of simple, repeated glass elements. These filter the light entering a room like a sieve while at the same time “returning” light to the outside world, in the form of a dynamic mask.
Each Kaleidolight unit consists of a glass cylinder with an aluminium “cap” fitted at one end. The whole element is installed from the inner side of a wall, through a cylindrical hole in it, and because it is longer than the thickness of the wall, it projects from the wall’s outer face.
The Kaleidolight tubes are placed in the wall according to a predetermined pattern. How far each Kaleidolight extends into the wall can be adjusted by hand, which controls the amount of light entering the room and, in turn, the atmosphere it can create there.
Light travels from the outer side of the wall along the glass cylinder and is reflected by the inner side of the aluminium cap, which has a mirror finish. It is thus projected indirectly onto the inner face of the wall, forming a halo around the hole in which the Kaleidolight is installed. At night, the exterior face “reflects” the interior installation through the projecting cylinders.
It is worth mentioning that Kaleidolight, developed by Ali Ganjavian of kawamura-ganjavian, was shortlisted for the Bombay Saphire Competition 2006 (a prize for architects, designers and artists who work with glass).
Text: Natasa Lianopoulou
Source: flashlight.gr
