TERESA VAN DONGEN

 Teresa van Dongen is an Amsterdam based designer. Since nature and science had always marveled Teresa, she chose to study biology after she finished her high school education. Next to her scientific education she had never given up on her creative hobbies like scenography (theater stage design), sketching and her interest for interior architecture. This combination of fascinations lead her to apply, in 2010, after two years of exact studies, to the Design Academy Eindhoven, where in June 2014 Teresa van Dongen graduated Cum Laude.

Teresa is a.o. fascinated by light as a translation of energy, the transparency of glass and what it beholds and the physics of movement. She loves to think that it is great to understand the languages of physics, chemistry and biology but the greater value lies in collaborations with people that can continue to surprise and inspire you with their knowledge.

Since her graduation, van Dongen’s work was nominated for several awards. A recent work, “One Luminous Dot”, was awarded with the “Eyes on Talent Award” and was shown during D’Days 2015 in the “Musée des Arts Décoratifs” (Louvre) in Paris. During Dutch Design Week 2015, Teresa van Dongen was awarded with a Dutch Design Award in the category of “Young Designer”.

LUMI

We are accustomed to light coming directly from the sun or from a lamp. When light is reflected by water or glass it can look magical. Lumi is a lamp that captures the contradictory traits of water and light in “a drop of glass”. It conducts, magnifies and spreads its light and the light from the sun about. Lumi translates the world around it in its own way while constantly transforming with it.

Lumi was made possible by the Glass Studio National Glass Museum of Leerdam

The main inspiration for the Lumi project was van Dongen’s fascination for the combination of glass, water and light. For their contradictory traits water and light (as fire) are not commonly used in one design, therefore possibly the more interesting. The transition between glass and water is barely visible. In this way the glass creates an almost invisible membrane between the two antipoles, thus bringing them closer together.

Anyone who has ever tried to remove a bulb from a lamp and burned his fingers will be able to relate to the bigger idea behind Lumi. Lumi visualizes energy that constantly gets lost, in the form of heat, from an incandescent light bulb. Due to the heat of the bulb the water forms a pattern of tiny condense drops in the inner bowl. The light that shines through the condense makes an amazing pattern on the walls surrounding it.

Lumi is made with hand blown glass from the Glass Studio National Glass Museum of Leerdam. The glassblowing technique used for Lumi is quite unique since the two bulbs that form Lumi are blown in one piece. It comprises partly blowing glass and partly sucking the hot glass back in, which is an unconventional but magnificent technique. The armature is made of two subtle stailess steel rings that hold the light bulb in place.