by Ann Withanee — December 16, 2011—Architect Daniel Libeskind has created a limited-edition LED chandelier, eL Masterpiece, that is distinguished by both its striking design and the sophisticated technology behind it. Created in collaboration with Austrian lighting company Zumtobel, the limited-edition eL Masterpiece chandelier made its debut at Art Basel Miami Beach early December 2011. Architect Libeskind, of Studio Daniel Libeskind, was named master planner for the World Trade Center site in 2003.
Libeskind’s first lighting design, eL Masterpiece is roughly nine feet tall and two-and-a-half feet wide and weighs 350 pounds. A luminous, sharp-edged, cascading shape, the chandelier has a highly polished stainless steel exterior and a stainless-and-23-carat-gold-plated-leaf interior.
Illumination is provided by 1,680 specially designed light-emitting diode (LED) modules that have the ability to create seven color scenarios. These can be called up wirelessly via a special iPad app that activates individual, built-in mechanisms attached to each module (LEDs are usually controlled by a single external mechanism, notes the studio). The variety of color scenarios and the quality of the light emitted by each mimic the cosmic light that fills the universe.
The dynamic lighting owes its existence to a complex algorithm developed by Dr. Noam Libeskind, a son of Daniel Libeskind and an astrophysicist at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam.
eL Masterpiece chandelier is only the fourth in Zumbotel’s Masterpiece series of stylistically and technically innovative designs by leading creative persons. Others in Zumbotel’s Masterpiece series are Starbrick (2009) by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson; VorteXX (2005) by British architect Zaha Hadid; and the LQ-P-Chandelier (2005) by New York architect and artist Hani Rashid.
