I.D. Mag - Annual Design Review

LPK has won the Design Distinction award under the Concepts category in the I.D. mag Annual Design Review with my design, A Light in the Dark. Look for it in the July/Aug issue of I.D. Magazine!

Concepts
Best of Category
• The Datum Line / JWT New York
Design Distinction
• A Light in the Dark / LPK
• (PRESERVE) / IDEO
Honorable Mention
• Getting Personal with Global Warming / IDEO
• NYC Helmet / fuseproject
• Mauget “Forest Saver” Tree-Injection System / RKS Design

A Light in the Dark

ID Magazine Design Brief - Design an object that raises awareness of or helps mitigate the problem of global warming.

Imagine how different the world might be if we could capture sunlight and release it on demand to light the dark. As an alpha source of energy, the sun sustains nearly everything on our planet, including plants, animals and the natural resources that feed our energy needs. To avoid the byproducts of traditional energy production, we should tap into the sun’s energy much earlier in this transformation process.

A Light in the Dark is an active Venetian blind system that collects energy from the sun by day and releases it as needed at night. In the typical home, windows account for nearly 50 percent of the heat gain or loss depending on the season, relaying that workload to the HVAC system. Use of blinds is known to save energy—they keep buildings cool in the summer and provide insulation during the winter.

With A Light in the Dark system, homes become more energy-efficient and the need for electric lighting at night is minimized. Photovoltaic cells on the outer surface of the blinds absorb the sun’s energy by day, storing it in a Lithium Ion battery pack. The inner surface is composed of illumination cells, each housing an LED, reflector panel and lens. When activated, the blinds emanate light—replicating the sunlight by which it was enabled.

The blinds feature a zero-clearance design—when closed the “cells” lock together with minimal gaps, as opposed to the overlap of traditional Venetian blinds, to give added insulation during the colder months. The opaque photovoltaic cells also yield a higher shading coefficient, keeping buildings cooler during the summer.

--------------------------------------------

Since 1954, the Annual Design Review has recognized the best in product, furniture, graphic and environment design, from the iconic to the obscure. Throughout the years, this annual showcase has chronicled the evolution of design, and highlighted its impact on our material and visual culture.

Each year, the featured work is chosen by a jury of leading practitioners, who, along with I.D.'s editorial team, focus the abundance of submissions into a clear survey of the state of design. The resulting overview is published in the August issue of I.D. magazine — the Annual Design Review issue.