Ceramics that once diffused daylight, now perform with LED.
The Environmental Ceramics for Architecture Laboratory (ECAlab) has developed numerous architectural daylighting technologies manufactured in ceramics. In collaboration with the RIBA North National Architecture Centre, ECAlab presented the Ceramica Exhibition in 2017–18 — reconsidering a ceramic daylight-diffusing ceiling cone as an electrically lit ceiling, or as a lighting chandelier.
The MaxiLED Large Globe DMX series was chosen for its flexibility, control and wide range of potential scenes. Two lamp types share the ceiling: a fixed warm white, and a programmable coloured lamp. A specially manufactured portable lighting kit let the exhibition team experiment with different scenarios before committing to a series of colours — and a computer-generated preview showed what the final programmed ceiling would look like before installation.
Working with MaxiLED engineers, a lighting performance was programmed along the whole ceiling — numerous scenes, looped for a continuous performance throughout the gallery day.
One constraint governed everything: ceiling loading restrictions in the gallery meant the weight of the lighting was critical. The lightness and flexibility of the Large Globe DMX system made it the right fit for the installation.
