Combining nature and architecture, Vana is a dazzling forest of illuminated paper trees. This site-specific installation was designed by London architecture studio Orproject for the India Design Forum. It features four trunk-like structures dotted throughout the space and joined at their tops to form a continuous canopy that covers the ceiling. LED lights shine through gaps that divide the triangular segments and bathe you in an immersive glow. As you gaze upwards, the tranquil illumination transports you to make you feel like you’re looking at the night sky.
There was a lot of planning and technical consideration that went into making Vana. The studio was inspired by how a leaf forms and incorporated it into the development of the structure. “When the leaf grows, the veins develop with it in order to reach each cell on the surface of the leaf and supply them with nutrients,” Christopher Klemmt, co-founder of Orproject, explains. “Also when a tree grows, it tries to get an exposure of each leaf to the sunlight, so a similar mechanism drives the branching of the tree. We wrote a computer algorithm to simulate this development, in order to grow architecture.” The result is a geometric representation of basic natural processes, and Vana conveys the curiosity we have about how it works and how we can recreate it in what we make.
Orproject website
via [Dezeen and Arch Daily]