Indiana has a long tradition of producing hardwood veneer from regionally harvested trees. Made of Indiana hardwood veneer, these prototypes highlight some of the more subtle properties of hardwood. The thinness of veneer allows wood to bend, twist, and glow—revealing latent and innate qualities of thinly sliced wood. These qualities are exploited in projects that reveal the lightness of this typically heavy material.
Hardwood veneer Luminaires were developed with the Institute for Digital Fabrication using laser cut and tiled black cherry. The model used to create the lamps is a parametric Grasshopper file. This allows the user to select, create, and edit contour curves from which the form is created. Slide bars within the software adjust the size, rotation, and density of tiles on the form. This process gives the designer precise control for immediate visualization and a choice from an infinite number of iterations.
This is a shift away from using a predetermined shape, and towards a set of editable rules that create the form. It is critical that the rules be made with production methods, materials, and formal design in mind. This is achieved through prototyping and refining the model.
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