Atelier Robotiq: Weaving Lightweight Lamps

Rotterdam-based Atelier Robotiq shapes lightweight lamps with an industrial robot. Made of Aerospace industrial fiber, even large-scale lamps weigh less that a smart phone. The atelier has developed software and experimented with the technique and industrial robots for 1.5 years in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, where the collection is also produced.

“We are very local in Rotterdam, and we also manufacture everything by ourselves,” explains industrial designer Søren Blomaard, one of the founders of Atelier Robotiq. “This is the first time we go to a bigger show to show it to everyone.”

Atelier Robotiq’s high-tech approach to design is enabled by a diverse range of backgrounds and knowledge from robotics, aerospace engineering, product design and fine arts. During Dutch Design Week 2015, the atelier experiments with a robot and a selection of new patterns to make a large-scale lamp. The designs are woven onto a centrepiece by a pre-programmed pattern by an industrial robot, after which the centrepiece is removed.

“We have pre-programmed about 30 patterns for Dutch Design Week,” Blomaard tells. “We will try out all of them in different colours and patterns over each other and try to figure out the best one. The piece will be around two metres long, and can be placed in a high space in a restaurant or a hotel, for instance.”

“We have recently been experimenting with multiple patterns – in other words, multiple patterns woven to each other. They create interference effects in which the patterns come together and diverge again. Our new lines will be more towards more interference patterns and moiré effects in lamps.” •