Lamp Design & Laser Cutting: : DESN 551 at CSULB, Fall 2021

This is an instructable for course I am teaching at the California State University, Long Beach for DESN 551: Materials, Tools, and Techniques of Prototyping, Fall 2021. Students develop three mini-projects during this course.
For their second assignment, students developed a series of projects using laser cutting and algorithmic design (using Grasshopper, Rhino) for the design and fabrication of a lamp.

For this project, students learned about various natural patterns such as branching, cracking, spirals and tried to simulate using algorithmic design (Grasshopper). After the initial pattern-making exercise, they apply that to design and develop a lamp. The intention was to give attention to lights and shadows as it is produced by natural patterns. One of the groups looked at the compliant mechanism to produce a shape-changing lamp that changes shape and shadows as users are interacting with the lamp. Another group explores the implementation of Auxetic structure and fabrication of bio-plastic materials.

Congratulations to all our makers and I hope you enjoy following their processes.