Beacon - Cornering Light For Your Desktop
Beacon - Cornering Light For Your Desktop from Christoph Albiez
beacon - cornering light for your desktop

Beacon is a desk lamp concept developed in collaboration with Audi under the theme "A brand beyond the car" — translating Audi's LED lighting leadership from the road to the desktop.
No pivot joints, no adjustable arms. A thinned titanium neck acts as a spring element, bent by two steel cables and brushless motors. The lamp directs itself. A camera in the head reads hand gestures and moves the light accordingly, focusing or diffusing the beam through integrated optics. The only physical switch is the main on/off button — a deliberate choice to keep the user in control.
Inspired by the Audi DRL light strip and the Bird of Paradise flower, the silhouette evolved into something that still reads as a lamp, but unlike any you've seen before. Available in two heights: an 80cm desk version and a 2-meter floor lamp.

Beacon is an Audi-branded desk lamp concept developed in a fourth-year university project under the theme "A brand beyond the car." The lamp tracks its user rather than waiting to be adjusted — a camera in the head recognizes hand gestures, and the titanium neck bends autonomously using two steel cables to direct light exactly where it is needed.
scribles - The form emerged from countless small sketches, working toward a silhouette that still reads as a lamp but breaks clearly from the conventional. Early on, the decision was made to eliminate all pivot joints — the challenge of adjustability would have to be solved in an entirely different way.
keysketch - A key form study exploring the transition from base to neck — the characteristic thinning of the upper titanium shaft that makes the passive flex possible. The profile begins to establish the lamp's sculptural, almost calligraphic quality.
evolution - An intermediate form stage with a more expressive base and a clearly defined neck-to-head transition. The Audi DRL light strip is a visible reference point — not copied directly, but absorbed into the overall form language as a starting impulse.
beacon finding - With „beacon“ alignment of a table lamp is history, this lamp looks after its user. The head holds a camera that recognizes hand gestures and the lamp reacts by bending the TITANflex-frame which has been thinned out in the neck, lenses focus or distribute the light on the desired area.
beacon final - The final form direction: a continuous flowing curve from the weighted base through the thinned neck to the angled LED head. No joints, no hinges — the form itself is the mechanism. The result is closer to a new icon than a conventional desk lamp.
beacon - Beacon in context — shown alongside a fireplace in a minimal interior, the lamp's reflective surface and slender silhouette holding their own against the warmth and drama of the scene. The concept was developed in two heights: an 80cm desk version and a 2-meter floor lamp.
size - A scale study showing both variants in relation to a standing user — the desk lamp on the left, the floor lamp on the right. The diagram makes clear how the same formal language scales across both applications without losing coherence.
gesture handling - Beacon is controlled entirely through hand gestures captured by the camera in the lamp head — a three-step sequence: get attention, activate command, fulfillment. The only physical switch is the main on/off button, retained deliberately to give the user a clear sense of control. Gesture sets can be customized through a built-in learning function.
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beacon - cornering light for your desktop

Beacon is a desk lamp concept developed in collaboration with Audi under the theme "A brand beyond the car" — translating Audi's LED lighting leadership from the road to the desktop.
No pivot joints, no adjustable arms. A thinned titanium neck acts as a spring element, bent by two steel cables and brushless motors. The lamp directs itself. A camera in the head reads hand gestures and moves the light accordingly, focusing or diffusing the beam through integrated optics. The only physical switch is the main on/off button — a deliberate choice to keep the user in control.
Inspired by the Audi DRL light strip and the Bird of Paradise flower, the silhouette evolved into something that still reads as a lamp, but unlike any you've seen before. Available in two heights: an 80cm desk version and a 2-meter floor lamp.

Christoph Albiez
Dipl. Ing. (FH) Langen bei Bregenz, Austria