Add To Collection
Add to Collection
Ray-Bend
Ray-Bend
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
Ray-Bend
Ubiquitous to the architectural profession, eyeglasses help us do our jobs, are a result of the strain we put on ourselves because of long hours, and are a means to express ourselves around the most expressive human facial feature. Due to our ever-changing bodies, new precision lenses must be prescribed and dispensed on an annual basis. “Ray Bend” is a light installation using ophthalmic lenses, with multiple scales of architectural application.Once obsolete, the now seemingly purposeless lenses are ultimately discarded profession-wide. Since they are non-recyclable in today’s market and non-biodegradable, they simply will sit in a landfill for eternity. Instead of discarding them, if they were repurposed, these light-bending disks could have numerous architectural applications both interior and exterior. Either convergent or divergent, each lens could be added to an assembly to either focus or diffuse light. Because the ophthalmic lens manufacturing process is highly endothermic, the energy expendeture in the industry is enormous. To make one lens, a machine cuts a precise amount of extruded molten glass. This parison (molten glass chunk) then falls onto a half of a ceramic mould and is pressed together with the second half of the mould while being heated to 850 degrees Celsius (1562 degrees Fahrenheit). Once released from the mould it is then fire polished, precision CNC ground on one side, and then final polished to achieve the correct optics. Once these steps are completed, the lens is known as a blank, which is then cut and beveled to fit in a specific frame. Each one of these processes requires a great deal of energy, and each pair of glasses requires the entire process to be performed twice. The semispherical geometry of each lens lends itself to being inherently spatial, and by alternating the curvatures the form can be controlled to materialize into anything from a sphere to a plane.
Product Spec Sheet
Were your products used?
Join as a manufacturer to add your products.