SHADEVOLUME Totems - a light collection by Merel Karhof and Marc Trotereau
ShadeVolume is a collaborative project between acclaimed designers Merel Karhof (Netherlands) and Marc Trotereau (France), which seeks to advance the potential of the classic lamp-shade through processes of creative reconfiguration. Both former students of the Royal College of Art, Karhof and Trotereau are united by their interest in the relationship between objects and their surroundings - design with a focus on living environments.
The designers Merel Karhof and Marc Trotereau with their Totem lights.
Recognising the power in this often unremarkable object of a lampshade, the ShadeVolume project seeks to explore how simple lighting can be used to alter and define interior spaces to evoke specific physical and emotional responses. Each totem, or set of totems, is to be treated as individual and situational, typically arranged with a particular installation or location in mind.
Each ‘totem’ light is composed of between three and nine individual modular units, stacked together in unique sequences which allow for a great compositional flexibility. Composed from a soft textile material, backed with PVC for support, the shades form a transparent 'skin' around the light source, giving it unique shape without compromising on luminosity.
SHADE VOLUME LAMPS
A floorlight model from the ShadeVolume collection
A pendant model of the ShadeVolume collection
Trotereau and Karhof state: ‘One could design environments as ‘weightless’ as possible: conceiving living spaces with few objects that use almost no material and yet shape significantly our surroundings.' And it is with this same levity that the duo can artfully shape and reshape their own designs to produce bespoke environments and atmospheres, enabling endless impressive interior design solutions.
Light Installation with various models of the ShadeVolume collection
