LED ” Leading The Way In Lighting
Technology 19 years ago No Comments


contributed by Temenouzhka Zaharieva [freelance writer / interior design student / resident of Sofia, Bulgaria


Lighting is the design world’s new favorite playground. As humans we love light because it colors our perception of the world and of life itself. With this in mind, let’s discuss two ways of thinking about lighting design – lighting as means of creating and supplementing design, and light sources as objects of design. Of course these two approaches overlap, and it is difficult to define strict boundaries. One arena in which the two areas intertwine is LED [Light Emitting Diodes] sources. LEDs are considered to be one of the new hot waves of the future, and they may just be the most interesting of all the new lighting technologies.

LEDs are everywhere, and designers are using them more than ever for functional lighting projects, as well as in conceptual works. Their flexibility, the range of colors, and the ease of which they can be incorporated into objects make them a perfect material for design explorations. They have both low power requirements and low heat output, and these features give architects and designers greater freedom and a wider scope of design possibilities.

Light emitting diodes are tiny devices made of semiconductor material that allow an electric current to travel in only one direction and produce light as a by-product of current flow. Like fluorescent lights, LEDs do not have filaments, so they run cooler and last longer. They have been used for over 40 years in indicators, displays and as light sources for instrumentation and engineering applications.


For comparison:

  •  a good quality white LED produces 10 times as much light as the common incandescent light bulb and 2-3 times more light than an equivalent wattage low energy light bulb
  •  LEDs last up to 10,000 times longer than the ordinary light bulbs and 1000 times longer than the low energy light bulbs
  •  LEDs have a life span of 50,000-100,000 hours with average daily use, which amounts to 31 years of life
  •  conventional bulbs emit a more yellow light, while the white light that LEDs produce tends to lift one’s spirits


LEDs were first brought to market in the United States in the 1960s, but luminosity was still low and their use remained purely experimental. But in the 1970s, bright and stable high-luminosity LEDs were achieved through Japanese technology. High-luminosity LEDs went into volume production in Japan – first in red, then green in the 80s, and in the 90s blue.

Recent technological developments have meant that LEDs are now brighter and easier to use; consequently, the are being used in places never imagined before. Since LEDs produce energy efficient "cold" light, meaning that they do not emit any heat in the way an ordinary light bulb does, it is safe to have lighting built into the floor, furniture, work surfaces or walls to create interesting light effects.

There are numerous areas of application: mood lighting, under water effects, and accent lighting.

Using LED light sources for mood lighting is a good alternative because the brightness can be strictly controlled. Additionally, if intelligent multicolor LED light sources are chosen, the number of colors that can be obtained exceeds the imagination. It is important to have the capability to control LED light sources individually but also to have the option for special light effects via programming through special computer software.

LED spots, LED stripes and LED tubes can be also water-proof, therefore they can be used in swimming pools, or garden pools creating special light effects.

An imaginative application of LEDs as accent lighting is the suspended vase with LEDs designed by Tsutomu Kurokawa with Out Design. In its base, the acrylic vase / lamp has light emitting diodes that illuminate both the vase as well as its contents.

My-LED, a branch of my-tronic GmbH, offers a large variety of LED products, from single LEDs to innovative LED light sources for integration in light objects or just for use “as is” depending on our customers’ needs and requirements. The LED bricks they offer can be used basically anywhere you need them, including under water.

The most obvious use of LEDs is in general lighting. Well-designed, attractive lighting constitutes an important factor in securing comfortable living. Ting Ting Ting by Tord Boontje seems almost magicical. This new chandelier was made for the Swarovski Crystal Palace exhibition in Milan 2004. Ting Ting Ting is the first experiment in combining sound and movement with a crystal chandelier to create a multi-sensory experience. When the fixture’s detects that people are nearby, the whole chandelier begins to rotate. The hundreds of aluminum tubular bells then make a tinkling sound and the LED starts to twinkle.

Colour LEDs provide greater design possibilities. The use of RGB  colour-changing LEDs allow rooms to be flooded with light, washing walls, furniture, ceilings and floors with colour. Designer Marcel Jean Vos, founder of Vos Solutions – a ground breaking lighting and interior design consultancy specializing in creating LED lit interior and exterior environments – created Vos Pad, the first apartment in the world to be lit entirely using fully dimmable, colour-changing light emitting diodes.

Modern home theaters are increasingly being designed with state-of-the-art highly customizable color and dynamic effects that create moods, synchronize with other media, and enhance the overall quality of entertainment. Las Vegas-based Creative Home Theatre specializes in custom home theater design. Theatre’s own showroom features an extraordinary application comprising of 175 feet of iColor® Cove – an LED-based linear system that’s ideal for generating color and color-changing effects in alcoves and accent spaces. According to Creative Home Theatre specialist Greg Margolis, “The Color Kinetics lighting allows us to set dramatic scenes using color for a very pronounced effect. Theatrical industry lighting fixtures are typically large and complex, but these LED-based systems let us bring theatrical lighting to homes with more capabilities.”


LEDs in furniture design is not such a new idea. Ingo Maurer’s LED table – a beautiful glass table studded with the light of numerous white LEDs – was exhibited at Milano Salone 2003 and is probably the world’s first LED-embedded table. This year at the Milan Design week it again received recognition. Ingo Maurer began unveiling works that use LEDs in 1997.

Eo by Interlubke is a wall unit with 288 white LEDs between the glass sheets. In addition to its elegant design, Eo is famous for its ability to change its colour at will. LED units project red, green and blue lights from the inside of the unit and can be combined to create literally any colour you please. It can even be programmed to display a progression of colours of your choosing as to create your own personalized show.

New is the idea of using LEDs in textiles, but now there exists a new product called Luminex, a light-emitting textile. Luminex textiles—which glow with an otherworldly radiance—are the result of a collaboration between Italian high-tech electronics manufacturer CAEN and the Swiss company Sta-bio Textile. The self-illuminating fabric weaves tiny flexible optical fibers – originally developed for medical applications – into ordinary fabrics like polyester and Lycra. The light is generated safely by high-efficiency LEDs at very low voltages, powered by a small rechargeable cell-phone battery. The almost random sparkling effect is achieved by etching or breaking the fibers along their length to let tiny points of light escape.

An obstacle for using LEDs everywhere is the fact that, generally, they are still at the high end cost-wise. Another limitation is that LED fixtures and housings suitable for accenting are scarce and may have to be custom made.

OLEDs – are organic versions of LEDs. OLEDs are basically a LED made of hydrocarbon molecules. The difference is that instead of emitting a single bright point of light like LEDs do, OLEDs produce a patch of light over a wider area. Also, OLEDs consist of a thin, flexible, plastic-like material unlike LEDs, which are fabricated as rigid semiconductor chips. That flexibility opens up a range of imaginative possibilities. Rolls of OLEDs could be produced as a kind of luminous wallpaper. Table lamps could exchange their bulbs for shades that provide both light and decoration. But OLEDs are in their infancy, and so far have few applications. Disadvantages are that they are not very energy efficient, and the light output tends to decrease over time.

A project that uses LEDs in an innovative way is "tabula rasa": the exhibit that combined the innovations and talents of DuPont Corian®, Barco LED Lighting Systems and Designer Ron Arad to produce a number of striking objects and spaces. Concealed behind smooth white surfaces (a wall, a low table and hanging lamp) were LED arrangements displaying images and motion sequences. In the ambient light, everything appeared white. But when the lights went out, the colors and images appeared. The installation highlighted the translucency of Corian® by using the material as a screen not as something to be projected on, but as a surface from which images and sound emanate.

At Light+Building, the five-day German lighting trade fair held at the Frankfurt Fair & Exhibition Centre from 04/18 – 04/22 of this year, the effect that LED technology has had on European lighting trends was clear. Continued development in LED technology offers endless possibilities to the design world. Keeping in mind the fact that LEDs consume approximately tenth of the electricity and last more than ten times as long as conventional light bulbs, it is no doubt that they are fast gaining acknowledgment and market share as the main light source for the 21st century.


Note: A version of this article by Temenouzhka Zaharieva first appeared in the second issue of the online interior design journal E-merge this past January.