Tube Lamp: a cut-out cardboard lamp prototype

The project

Tube Lamp is Archicercle’s exploration of form and light using a cardboard tube. The studio developed the design and made a prototype with a cut-out body intended to let light pass through from within.

The pattern begins with a tessellation based on a Voronoi fracture. This geometry defines a network of irregular openings around the cylinder, turning its continuous surface into an open framework while retaining the piece’s tubular form.

To realise the design, we cut the pattern directly into the surface of the cardboard cylinder using our laser-cutting machines. The work brings together the generation of the geometry and its fabrication on a curved substrate.

The prototype was presented unpainted. Its finish remained open: it could be painted or retain the natural colour of the cardboard. A wooden base and an internal light were planned to complete the lamp, with the aim of projecting light and shadow through the cut-out pattern.

Later documentation also records the cut-out body lit from within, with blue light visible through the openings. These views convey the relationship between the pattern and the light, although the project was still presented as a prototype rather than a finished light fitting.

The pattern was cut into the cardboard cylinder itself, rather than into a flat sheet.

A wooden base was part of the planned completion of the prototype.

Processes and materials: fabrication services · available materials · studio machinery.