Bronze Product Engineering and Technical Design · 2024
Nopales Lamp
by Sebastian Morales and Tiri Kananuruk
- A' Design Award 2024 Bronze Winner in Product Engineering and Technical Design
- Awarded April 15, 2024
- CLIENT: Morakana
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 55,563
- Verification code 90EE6093C5 · Verify this award
About Nopales Lamp
Nopales is a modular lamp that ships flat as a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) and can easily be broken into pieces by hand. The interlocking pieces then click together to transform into a beautiful 3D cactus. Inspired by the Mexican landscapes, the playful design can be assembled in dozens of different ways and can even grow by combining multiple cards. This Nopal not only lights up spaces with a gentle glow, but also fosters a personal connection, inviting users to become co-creators in their own luminous garden.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Nopales is a modular lamp designed to be playfully assembled from a single Printed Circuit Board. Unlike typical PCBs that are flat and hidden inside enclosures, Nopales subverts this industrial nature to create a delightful object that is meant to be touched, bring joy, and evoke life into our spaces. It can ship flat as a postcard and can be hand assembled into your own nopal. Grow you cactus by combining cards.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Variable dimensions
Flat: 84mmx125mmx5mm
Assembled: 50mm x50mm x100 - Tags
- PCB, Lamp, Nopales, Cactus, Modular, Mexico, Art, Garden
- Production Technology
- Printed Circuit Board, LEDs, Microcontroller, CR2032 Battery
- Design Challenge
- The project looks deceptively simple but a lot of research has gone into the interlocking connections. Even when PCB manufacturing is a mature industry, there is no way to connect two boards in the ways we were searching for. Current solutions require bulky mechanical components "connectors", or to be solder. We have tried multiple approaches and worked with the PCB manufacturer though iterations. Orienting components in different planes, plating surface edges, special routing, springs, and more.
- Project Duration
- The project started early 2023 and exhibited at the HeadHi Lamp show in Brooklyn NY from March until July. A new updated version was shown at PioneerWorks Software For Artists Day in November.
- Operation Flow
- Nopales starts as a flat PCB that breaks apart by hand and can be interlocked into your own Nopal (cactus), then you can press the button to cycle though multiple brightness levels. It has an auto sleep timer to prevent draining the battery in case you forget to turn it off.
- Inspiration
- Nopales was inspired by the landscapes of my Mexican upbringing and our passion for developing creative hardware. We wanted to reframe Printed Circuit Boards (PCB)s beyond their technical existence, to expose the material's beauty and transform it into something tactile, delightful and captivating. We spent months working with manufacturers to create a simple and efficient way to interlock the PCBs both mechanically and electrically. Nopales circuit is designed to shine for months or even years.
- Image Credits
- MORAKANA LLC