kazuhiro yamanaka at yakitate

lamp by kazuhiro yamanaka for designboom image © designboom

japanese born, london-based designer kazuhiro yamanaka presented his work in the designboom curated show yakitate! at dwell on design 2011 in los angeles, june 24 – 26, 2011.

kazuhiro’s most recent work is a lamp shade that mimics light patterns seen in the sky during the approach of dusk and dawn — giving an impression of the universe being in continual activity. the pieces use lenticular lens film to produce a fluctuating and continuously varied surface. as users move around the object, the tapered rectangular shade changes in color ranging from white to blue.

installation view at yakitate! image © designboom

‘yakitate’ is japanese for ‘freshly baked’, and this designboom curated cultural group exhibition featured the work of eight

upcoming talents working in the contemporary design scene in japan, exploring the role of tradition and innovation,

from functional design to sculpture through their work. in the diverse fields of animation, lighting design, architecture,

textile design and craft, the young talents explore the role of tradition and innovation, from functional design to sculpture.

for the duration of the show, the participating designers delivered 30 minute workshop performances, twice a day to visitors,

giving them an up close look to their work and design process. large crowds gathered, offering a lively atmosphere.

Q+A sessions in each of these workshops were translated for those designers who were less fluent in english language.

kazuhiro at the workshop image © designboom

under the theme ‘skylamp effects’, during the workshop kazuhiro yamanaka showed various steps of the making process of the new lenticular lamp designed for designboom.

kazuhiro yamanaka starts with a flat aluminium sheet, then he cuts it and sticks the lenticular sheet on the outside surface. the last step consist in folding it into a cube shape images © designboom

sketch of the 1mm thick stainless sheet before folding image © kazuhiro yamanaka

sketch image © kazuhiro yamanaka

the lenticular sheet is applied on both sides of the stainless sheets – inside and outside.

bottom view sketch © kazuhiro yamanaka

kazuhiro yamanaka arriving from london with his packages image © designboom

installation view of kazuhiro yamanaka’s display image © designboom