I've always been fascinated by the intricacy of paper cutting art, specifically kirigami or origamic architecture. Some of the artists that inspire me include Professor Masahiro Chatani, Ingrid Siliakus, and Hary & Deepti. With my background in architecture & product design, I wanted to create something beautiful and also practical, hence the lamp functionality.
KIRUMA is part kirigami, part lamp, which features paper cutting art from a single sheet of A4 sized white paper, hand folded to form a three dimensional castle in the sky, permanently encased within a decoratively laser cut acrylic frame box, which has a back light fully integrated, and it can be placed both on vertical and horizontal surfaces.
When unplugged, KIRUMA can be used as a decorative by itself, as a tabletop centerpiece, as a wall decoration, but KIRUMA's main application is when the lights are on, providing nice cozy and warm ambient light, which can help to spark inspiring atmosphere in any room it's in.
The castle in the sky is a subject that I'm personally interested in, probably due to the cartoons and movies I watched during my younger days, and seems to align with the whole idea of KIRUMA as something that's supposed to inspire and bring "magical, dreamy, fantasy" world to the viewers.
I'm a multimedia designer by day, and laser cut artist by night. My passion has always been in arts and crafts, and laser cutting happens to be my current choice of tools, as it has the versatility to create something unique, a one of a kind creation, as well as something that are produced in massive quantity.
Help me turn this product into a reality so I can share it with the world by backing my Kickstarter project below.
More info: Kickstarter
Kirigami sculpture as a wall lamp
Illuminating Kiruma
Castle in the sky: concept sketch
Each kirigami is manually hand-folded
The shadowing effects of the cuts and folds
The light creates shadows, while the shadows define the light
The warm light of KIRUMA
