Australian lighting innovation in Milan

By Penny Craswell

It’s that time of the year again, when all the major designers and design brands turn their attention to Milan for the annual Furniture Fair, happening in the second week of April. While I won’t be heading there myself this year, Ben Baxter of McDermott Baxter will be writing up some of the innovative lighting designs he sees there, while showing the Nimbus light.

Nimbus by McDermott Baxter
Nimbus by McDermott Baxter

Ruth McDermott and Ben Baxter will be showing Nimbus as part of Ventura Lambrate Station, one of four Australian studios showing work in this new part of the exhibition for emerging designers. Nimbus is a continuation of McDermott Baxter’s experiments into lighting, using new technology and a low energy philosophy to create innovation artworks and design pieces.

Ruth McDermott
Ruth McDermott
Ben Baxter
Ben Baxter

Inspired by Sydney’s dramatic storm clouds, Nimbus features an array of 50 LEDs embedded into the structure which can be individually programmed to create storm effects and coloured effects of sunrise and sunset. Nimbus comes in three options: frosted white acrylic, perforated aluminium and gold anodised perforated aluminium. Each light fixture is a lightweight construction made of interlocking pieces which can be disassembled and flat packed for transportation. Individually, each Nimbus is 1 metre x 600mm and weighs around 9 kilograms.

Take a look at McDermott Baxter’s earlier piece, Cumulus, shown as part of VIVID.