Lee’s creation, the Stardust lamp, which integrates crystallized sugar into its design, made its debut at the 50th annual Milan Furniture Fair on April 2011 The lamp was the culmination of a two-semester project where the South Korean born Lee explored the potential uses of sugar in everyday design.
Incorporating these sugar bulbs into an iron modular structure, the lamp itself resembles the actual shape of the sugar molecule. With iron and sugar combined, the Stardust Lamp highlights two of the most precious industrial elements known to mankind. As Lee notes, this is only the beginning stage of his project, and we can only begin to imagine the possibilities.
As part of the manufacturing process, Lee submerged LEDs into a concentrated sugar solution for 10 days, causing sugar to solidify around the diodes. The sugar encased diodes were then mounted onto an iron frame inspired resembling a sugar molecule. Lee said the Stardust lamp is still in its developmental stages, so it might be a while before you can get your hands on one to replace your living room lighting fixture. But if you’re a business owner looking LED signs or someone who just likes to collect illuminated signs, LED technology is already available to you at the click of a mouse.
Joon Lee’s Stardust lamp presents a new way of using sugar as an environmentally friendly, sustainable resource at a time when trade is the cause of many problems connected to the design practice. The designer stresses that Stardust is at an early stage in its lifecycle, and if he finds support, he will continue experimenting with colored and fluorescent substances.
