Our glassblowing brand Optical Metaphor won its first and IMMEDIATELY top award: LIGHTING PRODUCT DESIGN OF THE YEAR for the chandelier in the B14 campus lobby at UNIT.City.
It was an exciting and valuable experience working with the talented Viktoriya Yakusha and her Yakusha Studio team, who designed this chandelier and the interior of the hall. We thought out the architectural and lighting design, and the chandelier was designed according to their sketches. I congratulate my colleagues on our joint victory!
Unit.City is a city of innovation, which can safely be called the Ukrainian analog of Silicon Valley, which is characterized by a significant density of high-tech companies. It is symbolic that we received the good news about the victory from California. The B14 campus is located near the main square of the innovation city, which is decorated in the style of Japanese minimalism, and since the chandelier is visible from it, we wanted it to continue the philosophy of combining simple design, aesthetics, sustainability and technology.
Together with the designers of Yakusha, we created such a form of glass tubes that would give concise forms and show the play of light. The optimal length and width of the tubes were selected so that they fill the space with sunlight as harmoniously as possible, and we also developed safe fasteners so that they do not come off due to drafts. Each individual element of the chandelier is designed from special optical glass, and the special optics in the light fixtures are adjusted in such a way as to reveal the structure of the elements.
In our Optical Metaphor glassblowing workshop, we analyzed the angle of the sun's rays and placed glass prisms on the chandelier in order to emphasize its shape with light as much as possible. The volumes were designed in such a way that they are well perceived both in the hall and on the square. It is a glass sculpture that harmoniously combines with the overall lighting concept of Unity City.
We approach the development of each chandelier individually for each object, and as a result, we always have a unique light-glass sculpture that has no analogs in the world. Working with glass in our glassblowing workshop Optical Metaphor allows you to maximize the play of light and shadow. And light, in its turn, will enable you to optimize space and architecture.
