Tasmanian Designer Wins International Lighting Award
Tasmanian designer Duncan Meerding recently won the Best Floor Light in the London 2018 DARC Awards. The Stump Light design (shown above) won the floor category amongst entries from Lighting Designers from all over the world.
The winning of the prize is all the more special, given the way in which the award is judged. Moving away from the traditional exclusive small judging panel, the DARC awards are judged by a strictly vetted peer to peer system, only lighting designers, interior designers and architects are allowed to vote.
“With over 6000 industry professionals voting it was a particular honour to win this award; having so many of my peers voting for my Stump design in such an international voting system really makes me feel honoured”,
Euroluce display at Venice Biennale 2018 showing Duncan Meerding's installation.
Meerding was able to attend the London award evening on May 31 and accept the award in person as he was already in Europe for the opening evenings of the Venice Design 2018 exhibition, as part of the Venice Biennale. Meerding was one of 60 designers invited to partake in the invite only exhibition displaying a cross section of Design from various cultures from around the world. The exhibition will be on display at the European Cultural Centre in the Pallazzo Michiel on the Grand Canal for 6 months. Last edition of Venice Design had over 200,000 visitors.
Meerding has a unique vision for design, being legally blind with less than 5% vision concentrated around the peripheral fields, much of his work reflects this alternative sensory world in which he operates, with an interest in how light performs through and around objects. The Stump Light is a specific example of this, with the randomised light patterns thrown through the different cracks in each light, concentrating on what the object is doing to the light as a key part of the design, dispersing and throwing light to the side.
Duncan Meerding's Propeller pendant in Tasmanian eucalypt
Duncan also continues to have a strong connection with sustainability in design – all of his log based designs are made from salvaged wood which would have other-wise have been burnt. Another facet of Duncan’s ethos is not wanting to move with quick moving trends, but instead create designs which will stand the test of time both metaphorically and physically.
“Sustainability should be at the core of the design process, it should not be tacked on at the end, furniture and lights should be designed to stand the test of time. Anything less is irresponsible and is bad design.”
Den log installation by Duncan Meerding
Having these two major achievements for 2018 will build upon the success of last year for Duncan Meerding’s design practice. Last year Duncan exhibited in Milan for the first time, created work for the MACQ01 Hotel (Hobart), installed five custom human sized log lighting installations at the DEN Bar Salamanca (Hobart), had Stump lights used in Google’s new offices in Singapore and had further works used in projects in both Sweden and Denmark.
For more information about Duncan and his designs see www.duncanmeerding.com.au
Watch a video by Josh Lemont on Duncan’s work for MACq01 Hotel here: