Silver Lighting Products and Fixtures Design · 2023
Objects Come Alive Ambience Lighting Systems
- A' Design Award 2023 Silver Winner in Lighting Products and Fixtures Design
- Awarded April 15, 2023
- CLIENT: Musashino Art University
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 35,895
- Verification code 20ED66A5E0 · Verify this award
About Objects Come Alive Ambience Lighting Systems
The luminaires are designed with a research focus on Biophilic design and kinesthetic empathy. The movement of the luminaires mimics the growth habits, movement patterns and rhythms of the plants, making the luminaires more relatable. Viewing the direction of the product relieves anxiety, tension, fatigue and other emotions. The luminaires change according to the environment (temperature, wind), making them more accessible for everyday use while creating a sense of atmosphere.
Drawing upon traditions of contemplative design where light serves as both functional necessity and spiritual presence, Fengsheng Cai's Objects Come Alive Ambience Lighting Systems represents a thoughtful synthesis of sculptural artistry and phenomenological illumination philosophy. The collection, awarded recognition for excellence in lighting design, demonstrates how contemporary luminaire development can honor ancestral craft traditions—particularly the paper-folding arts and lantern-making heritage of various cultural lineages—while advancing innovative formal vocabularies suited to contemporary domestic environments. The spherical lamp showcases remarkable geometric complexity, its interlocking panels creating a three-dimensional puzzle of folded planes that transform the shade into a breathing, organic presence rather than mere light diffuser; each fold catches illumination at varying angles, producing subtle gradations of luminosity across the surface that shift with viewing position. The companion piece—a field of illuminated stems rising from a solid wooden base—introduces temporal and kinetic dimensions to the lighting experience, suggesting natural phenomena such as fireflies emerging at dusk, grasses catching final sunlight, or phosphorescent marine organisms creating underwater constellations. Together, these objects propose that ambient lighting might function as living sculpture, objects that transform interior spaces into sanctuaries of visual poetry. The careful material selection—warm-toned woods, cream papers, delicate metallic wires—creates sensory coherence while the placement within a traditional architectural context emphasizes the dialogue between heritage and innovation. Technical accomplishment manifests in the precise engineering required to achieve such organic appearances through geometric construction, the balance between structural integrity and visual lightness, and the quality of light diffusion achieved through material selection. Viewers may find themselves contemplating how light shapes emotional atmosphere, how objects can carry the vitality traditionally attributed to natural phenomena, and how contemporary design might cultivate contemplative presence within domestic space.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The luminaires are designed with a research focus on Biophilic design and kinesthetic empathy. The movement of the luminaires mimics the growth habits, movement patterns and rhythms of the plants, making the luminaires more relatable. Viewing the direction of the product relieves anxiety, tension, fatigue and other emotions. The luminaires change according to the environment (temperature, wind), making them more accessible for everyday use while creating a sense of atmosphere.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Floor Lamp of Wheat (rising H250mm X W780mm X D405mm, falling H475mm X W600mm X D405mm); Table Lamp of Dandelion (shrinking H545mm X W350mm X D350mm, swelling H545mm X W350mm X D350mm), each component has been designed to be sophisticated, stylish, and modern without much visual burden.
- Tags
- Lighting, Lighting System, Interior Design, Biophilic Design, Bio-likeness, Alive, Movement, kinesthetic Empathy
- Production Technology
- Firstly, we have recreated the miniature silent motor and electronic components for the mechanical design to form a compact and stable light structure. And we combined this with programmable materials, thus ensuring the overall sensitivity and fluidity of the movement. Secondly, we analysed the rhythm of the activity of natural plants. We programmed the luminaire to move at a rhythm like the plants. We also use self-developed sensors to capture changes in the environment constantly.
- Design Challenge
- The challenge regarding its overall structure and programming. 1. to design robust, quiet and compact hardware and to use programming techniques to enable the luminaire to adapt to the changing environment at any given moment and perform rhythmic movements like a plant. 2. to make the product exist like a living creature that can read environmental changes and simultaneously become a new interface to inform people of impending dangers such as earthquakes.
- Project Duration
- The project started in 2021, and after multiple prototypes and refinements, it was completed in 2022. The first version was exhibited at the international luxury exhibition at the Shanghai exhibition centre in 2021. All development was done in Tokyo.
- Operation Flow
- The work combines programmable and natural materials to simulate as realistically as possible the effects of plants, such as the swaying of the sheaves of wheat and the softness of the dandelions and lamps depending on the environment (temperature, wind) or the behaviour of the person (body temperature when touched, blowing). The interactions are 1. the light of the wheat ears increases and decreases with the ambient temperature, and 2. the light of the dandelion contracts and expands with the breeze in the room.
- Research
- This research began to address how to bring products closer to people, to feel the interaction with them naturally and to have a positive psychological effect on humans. In this research, we found that "signs of life and intelligence" were often found in artefacts of autonomous movement. Still, there had been little attempt or study into the psychological effects of "Bio-likeness" in artefacts on people. We then analysed and systematised the abstract concept of "Bio-likeness' into products that give companionship to evoke hidden feelings. From this, we found that the images produced by the movement of natural objects have a positive psychological impact on humans. Therefore, in this design, I designed with a research focus on biophilic design and kinesthetic empathy, and through statistical analysis, found that this interaction by mimicking the movement of plants and changing according to the environment has a positive impact on the aesthetic and sensory feelings of the observer and can effectively relieve people's anxiety, tension, fatigue and other emotions.
- Inspiration
- Inspired by poetry, the beauty of movement is created by the plants described in the haiku as they change in response to their environment. In such an interactive way, the luminaire is considered alive, giving a sense of companionship. The luminaires mimic the forms (wheat grown with the sunlight, dandelions fluttering in the wind), the way they move and their rhythm. The move immerses people in nature, eases their mood, and increases creativity and well-being.
- Image Credits
- Fengsheng Cai, 2022.
- Patents
- Patented By Fengsheng Cai
Colors of Objects Come Alive Ambience Lighting Systems
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Biophilic Lighting Design Research and Consultancy
We specialize in research-driven lighting design that brings nature indoors through movement and interaction. Our expertise in biophilic design and kinesthetic empathy creates lighting solutions that respond to environments and enhance well-being. Partner with us for innovative projects.
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