BamX Lux
Overview
BamX Lux is a large-scale deployable light installation developed for the Geneva Lux Festival in collaboration with the artist Félix Michel. The project investigates the integration of bending-active bamboo structures with embedded lighting systems, focusing on modularity, deployability, and geometric continuity.
Design and Structure
The installation consists of seven identical deployable arches arranged in a polar array. This configuration produces an envelope approximating a toroidal form, while enabling the structure to be assembled from repeated elements with identical geometry and construction logic.
Material limitations in terms of available bamboo slat length required each arch to be subdivided into three identical modules. Each basic cylindrical module comprises 14 bamboo slats with an average length of 4.5 m. During prefabrication, three modules are connected to form a complete arch with an overall slat length of approximately 13 m. Once deployed, the cylindrical section reaches a diameter of 0.70 m, while the radius of the full arch spans approximately 7 m. The cylinder diameter is used to control the structural depth of the arch, contributing to the self-stabilization of the element. This modular strategy enables controlled fabrication and simplified logistics, while maintaining the continuous elastic behavior of the structure.
Lighting
Lighting is integrated directly into the structural system. For each arch, three slats are selected to host LED light strips. The LEDs follow the continuous centerline of a single bamboo slat, tracing its full curvature along the arch. As a result, light directly reveals the geometry, curvature, and bending-active behavior of the structure, rather than being applied as an external layer.
BamX Lux combines modular prefabrication, elastic deformation, and embedded lighting to unify structural, spatial, and luminous functions within a lightweight structural system.
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