Polycycle Illumination copy

Xuanhao Li
An award-winning CMF & computational designer, crafting meaningful elegance.

About Me

Selected Works

PROJECT
ROLE
YEAR
ADVISOR
CREDITS

AWARDS







EXHIBITION

Polycycle Illumination
Designer, Artisan
2024
HyunJoo Oh, Lisa Marks, Yaling Liu
CoDe Craft group, GVU Prototyping Lab, GVU Craft Lab

Red Dot Design Award | Red Dot
Core77 Design Awards | Winner ↗
NYCxDESIGN Awards | Winner ↗
DNA Paris Design Awards | Winner ↗
NY Product Design Awards | Glod
K-Design Award | Winner↗
Muse Design Awards | Gold

Red Dot Design Museum, Singapore

From Hazards to Elegance:

Polycycle Illumination is a collection of table lamps crafted from upcycled Polyethylene (PE) plastic film packaging, dedicated to promoting a safer ocean for marine life.

Annually, approximately 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are used globally, with an estimated 1% to 3% of them eventually entering the ocean. Due to their translucent film texture, discarded plastic film drifting in the ocean resemble jellyfish, deceiving sea turtles and other marine animals into ingesting them. This ingestion can result in blockages, digestive issues, and death among marine animals.

Polycycle Illumination addresses this threat by harnessing the flexibility, translucency, and thermoplasticity of discarded PE plastic film waste. Through upcycling, layers of discarded plastic films are fused via heat pressing into flexible, translucent plastic sheets. These sheets are then fabricated into elegant, jellyfish-shaped table lamps. Polycycle Illumination aims to extend the lifespan of plastic film materials, reduce oceanic plastic waste, and foster a healthier marine ecological environment.

Upcycling & Fabrication:

The modeling process is parametric design-based, with original algorithms programmed to generate jellyfish-shaped lampshades, composed of flattenable and interlocked knitted stitch-shaped units.

The material preparing process involves cleaning the collected plastic film waste to remove dirt and tags, then using a heat-pressing machine to fuse layered plastic films into sheets. The CNC cutting machine is used to cut the generated units out of sheets. Then, the units are hand-assembled into lampshades with craftsmanship.

Different tools for global fusion: (a) a clothing iron: Black + Decker "The Classic" model, (b) a handheld heatpress: Cricut EasyPress, and (c) a tabletop heatpress: HIX Swingman 20.

Global fusion outcomes: (a) a successfully-fused; (b) a failure case with separation of constituent layers; (c) smooth texture on the surface of a successfully fused sheet; and (d) a failure case due to melting and burn marks resulting in rough and uneven surface texture.

(Left) Successful global fusion temperature range versus the number of layers of HDPE plastic sheets ranging from 10 to 100, and temperatures ranging from 120 to 170oC. The applied time was 20 minutes (10 minutes on each side) for the handheld heatpress, and 1 minute on one side for the tabletop heatpress. (Right) Varied thicknesses of fused sheets based on the number of layers. 30 layers have more of a fabric feel, 50 layers have a leather-like feel, and 100 layers have a wood-like rigid thickness.

Innovation from the Kitchen Supplies: Using Butcher Paper to Even the Heat Shrinkage
From my experiments, I found that the bumpy texture of fused HDPE sheets is caused by uncontrolled shrinkage during cooling. Parchment paper, commonly used as an isolation material, is too thin and slippery to prevent this.

In contrast, butcher paper, with its medium-stick, rigid, and durable properties, effectively holds the HDPE sheet in place, controlling shrinkage and resulting in a smoother surface. Additionally, the rolled smooth surface of the butcher paper allows the HDPE sheet to peel off easily once cooled.

Previous Plastic Bags Recycling & Upcycling Challenges:

Currently, the common industrial method for recycling plastic bags is shredding them in grinders. However, due to the thin and elastic nature of plastic bags, they often get entangled in the grinders, causing machine malfunctions. As a result, only a few recycling facilities accept plastic bags.

Regarding upcycling, Georgia Tech's research lab, CodeCraft Group, uses heat-pressing machines to fuse multiple layers of plastic bags into plastic sheets. However, this method faces a significant challenge: the heat-fused plastic sheets are often uneven, with irregular warping and bumpy textures, which creates substantial difficulties in subsequent cutting and processing steps.

Bio-Inspired Eco Design:

The lamp's jellyfish silhouette symbolizes the design commitment to ocean conservation. Through upcycling, the lifespan of plastic film waste is prolonged, potentially reducing the volume of waste entering the ocean and safeguarding marine life.

The bio-inspired silhouette not only celebrates the diversity of the ecosystem but also serves an educational purpose, urging individuals to practice mindful consumption of materials and to help safeguard marine life from the detrimental effects of plastic pollution.