Light Travels Through Filamento
Madrid’s Mayice Studio has produced Filamento, an installation that cleverly and beautifully uses the reflection of light on glass for a laser-like effect
Think of Filamento, the latest project by Madrid-based Mayice Studio, as Star Wars tech with glassblower aesthetics. Using a combination of geometry, transparency and trial and error, the duo has created a four-metre long sculptural installation that sees light traveling in what appears to be a straight line throughout orbital falls and rises. It’s a physics experiment gone right, with photons speeding through concave and convex glass.
With Filamento, the duo —architects Imanol Calderón and Marta Alonso Yebra— continues and literally extends the research that went into their Rfc+ collection, a set of thirteen hanging lamps made with dormant glass moulds last used in the early 1900s. What the Filamento system does, with its one-metre add-ons, is provide the possibility of stretching that frame of light indefinitely.
The piece was fully produced in Spain: the aluminium and light parts were crafted in Madrid, while the demanding crystal production was carried out in nearby Zaragoza. “That’s the great advantage of being in this city,” said Calderón. “You’re so close to highly skilled artisans that can work with crystal, with aluminium, with wood, with textiles.”
Mayice presented their proposal during the first edition of the Madrid Design Festival earlier this month. The first run of Filamento won’t stay in Spain for long, though: it’s headed to this year’s Salone del Mobile, under the blessing of Rossana Orlandi.
This is part of our coverage of the 2018 Madrid Design Festival. To read the rest of the series, click here.
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