Haven't you longed for the Eames lounge chair? Wouldn't the Barcelona chair be the perfect finishing touch to your living room? You love the chairs but let's face it, even Design Within Reach is still just out of reach for most of us. Never fret! You can get the miniature version that you can stare at and appreciate! So even if your derriere can't afford to sit in luxury, your finger can! No...wait...nope. Your finger can't afford it either. Alas, all you can do is cut out a picture of the chair and pin it up on your dream board. Then cut out a smaller picture of that same chair at 1:6 scale and pin it up next to it.
Before we get to the product, we need a short science lesson.
Photoluminescence is the process where a material absorbs photons (unit of light) then emits photons. There are types of photoluminescence. Resonant radiation immediately emits the photons absorbed in the matter of nanoseconds.
Fluorescence absorbs lights and re-radiates it at a longer wavelength causing the glow to last longer. This is used in fluorescent lights of course, some minerals flouresce, and it is also the science behind forensic tests for blood and fingerprints that you might see in - insert favorite crime show here.
Phosphorescence doesn't re-radiate immediately. It goes through "forbidden" (very inefficient process in quantum mechanics) energy states allowing it to re-radiate very low energy over a much longer period. This is where you get glow-in-the-dark toys, paints, shoes...
These are not the same as glowing plankton and firefly butts which are bioluminescence and a chemical reaction. And definitely not related to efflorescence even though they rhyme.
So in the building product world phosphorescent material are being used in different ways. With anything that glows there is a fine line between cheesey and cool so you may have to have an open mind.
The picture above is The Give Back Curtain from KVA. Photoluminescent pigments are added to the fibers so the curtain can recycle ambient light. These guys have been doing other experiments with types of glowing light. Search through their projects for more.
Ambient Glow Technology or AGT is using a photoliminescent aggregate to put in concrete and terrazzo. This aggregate can be mixed in or sprayed on and can glow for up to 12 hours after just 10 minutes of light exposure. Think night club or children's museums. It looks pretty nice in this restroom...
And in a more practical application, the technology is being used in safety materials such as stair nosing and exit signage. Johnsonite has a product called Safe-T-First that covers any kind of glowing safety stripping you might need for stairwells and exiting safety.
You may have seen these architectural panels before in buildings or at Knoll showrooms or in Interior Design Magazine but maybe you don't know the designer or how they are made. The artist is Erwin Hauer and he started creating these panels in the 50's. He wanted to explore the idea of infinite continuous surfaces, room screening and light filtering effects. He started by creating complex molds that he would use to cast stone. He would create modular panels that when installed together created a continuous surface design.
His panels were used more as art installations and he continued this way for almost 50 years. In the early 2000's one of his former Yale students, Enrique Rosado, teamed with Hauer to digitize his design. Now they use digital files and CNC machines to create panels from MDF, stone, or concrete. Now if we can just get Ikea to carry them.
