Renowned architect and lighting designer Arjun Rathi recently announced India Light Craft – an open lighting design competition that encourages the use of non-traditional materials and sustainability to explore modern design sensibilities. The competition aims to create an independent luminaire which blends form and function - exploring the fine line between technical and decorative lighting to create a ‘techno-decorative’ luminaire.

While maintaining the emphasis on sustainable materials and crafts, the goal of the competition is to design a luminaire for mass production, which can be used across residential, commercial, or institutional projects. An inviting aspect of the initiative is that the winning entries will be taken into prototyping and commercial production by Arjun Rathi Design with the winners receiving design credit and royalty on sales.

Once the winning entries are selected by the jury, the prototyping and production processes with the artisan and craft communities will be carefully documented. The winning entries will be manufactured by the studio and launched as mass produced products for sale.

India Light Craft will be free to enter for designers all over the world. As per the competition brief, fixtures can be a re-interpretation of traditional chandeliers, wall, ceiling, floor lamps or modular lighting systems, which may have multi-functional use across various sectors. The competition encourages the idea of sustainability, and open exploration of recyclable materials and / or engagement of local craft practices to produce part or the whole fixture. “While maintaining the emphasis on sustainable materials and crafts, the goal of the competition stresses upon the importance of designing a luminaire for mass production. Designers are open to explore materials and crafts of their choice. We encourage usage of non-traditional materials like woods, ceramics, weaves, textiles among others and explorations in sustainable production processes,” the brief read.

Arjun Rathi says, “We want to engage craft practices in India to produce fittings that allow exploration of sustainable, local and non-traditional materials used for production.” The production process also aims to help generate employment for the artisan communities while creating a platform to generate dialogue between the design community and the craft industry.

The competition is open to professionals, students, and design enthusiasts, alone or in artists’ collective, from every country in the world. Entries are open till 7th September 2020, and the result will be declared through an online event on 15th September.

India Light Craft, through a jury process, will select one winner and two runner-ups. The organisers have informed that the product launch will take place on 15th November.

For more information, you can visit: www.indialightcraft.com