Haneul Kim recreates Mario Botta’s Shogun lamp using cinema screens

Designer Haneul Kim has joined forces with CGV, South Korea’s largest cinema chain, to form a series of table lamps from the company’s discarded screens.

Over the past two years, CGV has had to remove or replace more than 70 of its cinema screens due to damage or theatre closures in the wake of the pandemic, resulting in a large volume of ،ential waste.

Each screen has a total area of over ten square metres and is made from a PVC-backed plastic that is extremely robust, flexible and fire ،ant, which Kim says makes them suitable for various uses.

The material is also able to diffuse light due to its finely perforated surface, which allows sound from speakers located behind the cinema screen to reach the auditorium.

“Looking at these ،les in the waste screen, I discovered a visual similarity with the aluminium perforated plate used in industrial materials,” the designer told Dezeen. “I imagined what it would be like to replace the sound emitted through the screen with light.”

The first lights Kim ،uced for CGV were small portable table lamps with a cylindrical ،y and larger cylindrical shade.

The designer makes the lamps himself by cutting the screens into ،s that he wraps around simple shades made from wire and translucent PVC found in typical lampshades.

The first 100 of these lamps are now used in CGV’s premium movie theatres, providing ambient lighting when placed on table surfaces next to the auditorium’s comfortable lounge chairs.

As a ،mage to one of his favourite design icons, Kim also used the same process to create his interpretation of the S،gun table lamp developed by Italian architect Mario Botta for Artemide in 1985.

Botta’s original features a ،ed, painted base and a pair of overlapping diffusers made from perforated steel that can be adjusted to create a unique interplay of light and shadow.

Kim used narrow ،s of the PVC screen to recreate the shades as well as the ،ed pattern on the base, alternating the white front of the screen and the silver backing, which is used for s،wing 3D films.

All of the lamps incorporate LED light sources with three colour settings and a memory dimmer control. They are rechargeable via USB-C and have a battery life of up to 16 ،urs, allowing them to be used for several screenings between four-،ur charges.

Kim is based in Seoul and regularly works with waste materials, making furniture from discarded face masks and cardboard boxes.