Worlds / World 2 / Training (1)

Primitive Lamp

A steel lamp I cut, bent and finished by hand.

A table lamp made of 2 mm steel sheet, inspired by brutalist architecture. I took it from sketch to SolidWorks Sheet Metal to a real, working lamp.

Height38 cm
Top33 × 17.5 cm
Material2 mm steel sheet
Parts3
Primitive Lamp: A steel lamp I cut, bent and finished by hand.
Role
Solo · design, CAD, fabrication
Course
Training (1)
2024/2025
Tools
Sketching · SolidWorks Sheet Metal · Laser cutting · Hand bending
Supervised by
  • Dr. Eslam Gharib
  • TA Aya Soliman

01Brief

From steel theory to a real object

In Production Engineering 1 we studied steel, its types and how it bends. Training (1) asked us to use that knowledge for real: design something, then build it in a workshop.

02Research

Raw geometry and negative space

I looked at many existing lamps and at brutalist architecture. I wanted a lamp that looks different from every side, using simple shapes and the empty space between them.

Side view of the black lamp with light spilling onto the floor
Light falls through the gap between the cylinder and the top plate.

03Sketch

Three parts, drawn for sheet metal

After sketching, I drew the lamp and modeled it in SolidWorks Sheet Metal. It is three parts: a top plate with a half-circle cut-out, a conical cylinder rolled from a flat pattern, and an L-profile that closes the cylinder.

Assembly drawing with front, side and section views of the lamp
Assembly drawing. Dimensions in cm.
Drawing of the top plate with its flat pattern and bend lines
Top plate with its flat pattern and bend lines.

04Prototype

Laser cut, damaged, fixed, bent

I had the parts laser cut from 2 mm steel. One workshop damaged them during bending, so I fixed them and bent every part myself. The conical curve at the bottom was the hardest part of the project. It took the most time and the most money.

Fiber laser cutting a steel sheet with sparks
Laser cutting the parts.
Laser-cut steel parts wrapped in plastic, held in a hand
Fresh from the laser.
The bent and assembled lamp in grey primer in a workshop
Bent, assembled and primed.

05Born

Matte black, warm light

I painted it matte black and put a warm light inside the cylinder. It stood on its own plinth at the jury.

The finished black lamp lit on a white plinth next to its poster
The finished lamp at the jury.
Feras standing next to his lamp at the jury exhibition
Me and the lamp on jury day.
Render of the lamp on a coffee table in a living room
Render in a living room.