Young designer lights the way

Motion-sensitive skirting boards that light up using LEDs have been announced the outright winner of Brightgreen’s fourth national ‘Switched On’ competition.

The competition, which each year challenges undergraduate students to create the ultimate eco-lighting solution for home or commercial use, was held at the end of 2012 and the winning design selected by Brightgreen’s judging panel was the ‘Path LED Skirting Board System,’ by Benjamin Donnelly, an industrial design student at QUT in Brisbane.

Benjamin’s innovative and sustainable design allows users to navigate their homes at night through ‘indirect orientation’ lighting. The strips can be placed on stairways, paths or as feature lighting and are fully adaptable for timing and dimming.

An alternative use he suggests is to construct the strips as tiles using materials that will generate electricity when pressure is applied to them. Installed in the right situation, this would mean that foot traffic would generate enough electricity to power the path.

“It was a solution that could be cleverly adapted to residential or commercial environments”, said David O’Driscoll, Brightgreen CEO, head product designer and chairman of the judging panel.

“Benjamin really uncovered the ultimate eco-lighting solution with his design by offering both a practical and sustainable solution.”