Rooshad Shroff: EDIDA India 2015 Lighting winner

Marble might be an obvious choice for flooring, but who would have thought of turning marble into bulbs? Two-time EDIDA winner Rooshad Shroff did. His incredible Marble Bulbs won him the EDIDA 2015 for Lighting. The Mumbai based creative believes in pushing techniques and materials to their limits for spectacular results. “The exploration with the bulbs started with marble artisans and craftsmen who carve deities…to encourage them to get outside their comfort zone. That’s something I do constantly in terms of techniques, materials, etc. That’s also where the idea of the bulbs also came from.”

When the project commenced, Rooshad was intrigued by the way in which a robust material like marble could be reduced to a fragile element, thin enough to let light shine through. “We almost broke 40 bulbs before we came to the first one and another layer of complexity was added with the carving on top. This helped creating light patterns when the bulb is lit,” he explains.

While some would argue that other stones would have made better light sources than pure Makrana marble, Rooshad counters, “When working with the craftsmen, I use the material they are most comfortable with. I worked with a lot of artisans in Jaipur, who used Makrana which is a local stone and preferable over buying Italian marble. Although, onyx would glow much better, I made a conscious decision not to use it and I quite liked the beauty of white with the grey grains on it.”

Website: www.rooshads.wix.com

We are now accepting entries for EDIDA 2016. Click here to know more.

Also read: These lights look like upside down skyscrapers!