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August 1, 2009

Paper Tensegrity Task Lamp


Tensegrity structures have fascinated designers since they were invented by Kenneth Snelson in the 1940s. Robbert Spikman, studying Industrial design at the Technical University Eindhoven in the Netherlands, designed this LED desk lamp using a tensegrity tower, and made from paper structural members (with the help of the step-by-step instructions from Ropes and Poles).

Robbert writes:
I used just one power cable to let the spine work as a mechanism to let the light stand up.
By changing the tension of this "spine" cable, the light can move up and down.
The foot of the paper model can pivot within 100 degrees.
My initial idea was to put the light tube stuck to one of the paper tubes, so it would not stick out(like you can see in the picture with the orange background).
Because I had to put the light 600 mm from the foot I decided to put an add-on at the end with a light in it.
There was still enough force though to put another block at the end (with the light stuck to one of the tubes).



Feel free to contact Robbert here.

1 comment:

Stephen Bunker said...

I wonder if a variation of this could be made into a gateway?