LED lighting fixture Design between innovation and tradition

Design is today considered as a discipline and practice able to understand our complex contemporary culture. As our reality becomes more complex, connected, multidimensional, so the design practice has been widespread crossing different disciplines which are intertwined, mixed, entangled: design, art, science, culture, engineering interacts in the creative process and need to be considered together while developing a project (Oxman, 2016). In its intangible values and cultural aspects, the design is also confronted with the memory and heritage of territories and brands. The need of considering and maintaining tradition and heritage is creatively embedded in the design-driven innovation of meanings: it is seen as activating original cultural coding and as producing results that convey meanings, generate effects and meaningful affects (Vacca, 2013). On the other side, the design is also pushed to envision innovative scenarios, systems and solutions in terms of performances through the adoption of disruptive technology-driven innovation. Design works to handle a wider understanding of the dynamics of interaction between object, subject and context to design new artefacts based on the new dimension of cultural values and technological exploitation. In the lighting domain, the Solid-State Lighting technology is giving designers and industry almost unlimited freedom to develop lighting products by radically revolutionizing the way the lighting fixtures can be conceived, designed, built and realised. Besides this, understanding the importance of being in step with the technologies and trends of lighting, while wishing to fully exploit their historical heritage, lighting companies are today called to improve their capacities and design processes between tradition and innovation. Within this framework, the paper will present the results and approaches of a learning experience focused on the development of LED-based lighting fixtures through a challenging design process that considers all the aspects related to tradition and innovations in terms of production, culture, technology and materials. Reflecting on the planning, the implementation, the delivering and the achieved results of this learning activity, the paper will offer insights on how to handle the MetaDesign teaching methodology which involves a research path that allows handling complex systems for designing innovative solutions between recognisability and originality. The learning module was aimed to unveil the complexity of the creative process by understanding the historical and artistic identity of the Lighting Company, by analysing the reference market, by investigating the technological aspects and the production modalities related to lighting products and glass materials, and by analysing the typological-formal values. The paper will offer an overview of the methodological process of design, by presenting a best practice case study which was developed with the Metadesign Studio classes offered in the Product Design Programs of the Design School at Politecnico di Milano in collaboration with an Italian historical lighting company: Barovier & Toso.