Lights That Unfold And Retreat Like Flowers

Amsterdam-based designers Studio Drift created Shylight, a light that blossoms open and shut like a flower. Displayed as a permanent installation at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, the lights were conceived over a five-year period of research and prototyping. Created from layers of silk, they have been engineered to come alive in expressive unfolding movements that can be controlled down to the millimeter, mirroring the ‘nyctinasty’ of real flowers. Speaking of the intention behind their work, Studio Drift says, “Shylight is the result of the question how an inanimate object can mimic those changes that express character and emotions.”

All images © courtesy of Studio Drift / Erik Smits