Chlorophilia luminaire from Artemide: design inspired by nature using PLEXIGLAS® molding compound

• The Chlorophilia light made by Artemide is a harmonious triad of lighting technology, material and natural forms
• PLEXIGLAS® offers designers virtually unlimited freedom due to the material’s outstanding formability

Chlorophilia emits the cheer of a summer’s day in the garden, with the pendant light swaying gently like a leaf in the breeze. When turned on, the lamp made by the renowned Italian lighting manufacturer Artemide creates a swaying canopy of leaves, creating an interplay of light and shadow on the ceiling.

The design is certainly typical of the multi-award-winning British designer, Ross Lovegrove: “I’m inspired by the logic and beauty of nature,” says Lovegrove, who has already designed more than ten lights for Artemide. For Chlorophilia, the designer recalled floral structures and used them for contemporary light design, thus creating a harmonious triad of technology, material and organic shapes.

High surface reproduction accuracy

The heart of the light design of Chlorophilia are the “leaves”: The gently wavy surfaces with curved contours and a honeycomb-like structure imitate lush foliage. They are manufactured in an injection molding process using PLEXIGLAS® molding compound – a proven material with a long tradition in the lighting industry.

Along with its high degree of transparency, the brand polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) from Röhm also boasts excellent flowability and surface reproduction accuracy, allowing a very good replication of the delicate structures in the thin “leaves” of Chlorophilia. “PLEXIGLAS^® offers designers virtually endless freedom when it comes to shapes and textures,” says Siamak Djafarian, Head of the Molding Compounds business unit at Röhm GmbH. Lighting manufacturers can also take full advantage of the broad product range with tailored lighting properties offered by PLEXIGLAS^® for a broad spectrum of lighting applications.

The leaf-shaped lighting elements used in Chlorophilia serve as lenses that break and scatter the light. The leaves are arranged radially and partially overlapping over the hanging lighting element, and are illuminated from below by a chip on board LED (COB). This disseminates a pleasant, indirect light around the room and makes its shadows dance on the ceiling.

“In nature, the green plant pigment chlorophyll absorbs the energy of light. But here, Chlorophilia and PLEXIGLAS^® emit light and positive energy,” says Djafarian. This luminaire, as an unusually designed sculpture made of PLEXIGLAS^®, is also quite the eye-catcher even when turned off.“