Rā - Demolished & recycled concrete pendant lamp
Rā is a concrete pendant lamp which is made from demolished and recycled concrete waste. It is a product that is designed keeping the environmental impact and sustainability in mind. Despite being a pendant lamp the user can easily assemble and disassemble the product anytime making the product's maintenance easy. The packaging is designed cleverly to fit in all the components making it easy to transport.
The whole purpose of this project was to come up with a product that is sustainable. Looking at the current scenario, we as designers need to design more products that are sustainable and environmental friendly.
Since the project revolved around sustainability I had to choose materials that did justice to the given brief, so the materials were carefully chosen for its making. Materials like demolished concrete, concrete, copper, and powder coated metal were used for the production of the pendant lamp. My inspiration for this project was demolished construction sites, where the co relation of concrete and the support bars used for the concrete beams are very clearly seen. This relation is also seen in the product where the middle metal ring acts like a support for the two concrete disks.
Tools used for this project were Autodesk fusion360 for the 3-D model, and keyshot for rendering. The process for the prototype began with finalizing the concept for the lamp and understanding how the mould should be made for the concrete disks in order to achieve the desired results. After a few attempts making the mould, I selected the final one and began the process of mixing concrete, wood ash and water together. After pouring the mixture in the mould I let it set for 3 days till the concrete mixture was completely solid. I fabricated the middle metal ring structure and then powder coated it with black paint. In order to fit in the bulb holder I had to bore two holes in the upper concrete disk, bigger hole for the holder and a smaller diameter hole on top for the wire to pass freely. The lower disk has two slits for inserting the main frame that holds the entire structure together. In the end all the parts were assembled together.
People's initial reaction to recycle concrete lamps was that there would be issues with the weight of the material. Through this project I have been able to change those perceptions. This project has improved my understanding of concrete-it's properties, making process and usability.
