PSP Design Challenge 2007

Lighting Finalist

Project Name:  The Long White Cloud Designer:  David Trubridge, David Trubridge Design Contributing Professionals:  Florent Albinet PSP Products Used:  PSP UV Suntuf Flat

The brief asked simply for an organic form of about 14m long to provide the main light source for the entrance foyer. Nothing of this nature or size had been built before by us. A certain amount of experimentation was carried out with smaller scale structures.

In order to achieve the large size required, a very light weight structure had to be built, so 1.5mm PSP Suntuf Flat (polycarbonate sheeting), which is strong, flexible and with a high melting point was chosen. It can also be easily machined on a CNC router. The form was designed using the computer program Rhino3D. The shapes unrolled to flat strips which were cut out on a CNC router.

The strips were fastened together with aluminium rivets and in doing so they were pulled back into the form. This is an innovative process with enormous potential which I have developed for lights of various sizes and forms.