Documented artwork / kinetic light installation

RadiaLumia

A geodesic sphere is wrapped in 42 moving origami shells and illuminated by more than 100,000 LEDs. Its changing surface references the mineral skeletons of radiolaria and alternately conceals and exposes the interior.

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Documented work. Current availability, ownership and installation requirements must be confirmed with the artist.

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At a glance

Year / version: 2018
Materials: corrugated polypropylene, LEDs
Documented setting: outdoor
Dimensions: Five stories tall
Dimensions apply to: Qualitative height description for the 2018 work on FoldHaus’s page; exact dimensions and shipping units are not stated.
Availability: Unconfirmed

Places & versions

Installation history

Historical presentations. A past installation does not establish the current location or suitability for a new site.

2018
Burning Man playa, Nevada
Installation source

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Research notes for project planning

How this work was made and presented

Development of the 2018 Burning Man installation

Prototype the unit before the whole

FoldHaus documents RadiaLumia as a geodesic structure wrapped in forty-two folding polypropylene shells, with a form inspired by microscopic radiolaria. The development sequence moved from a four-foot paper model to a full-size shell with mechanical components, followed by animated studies of coordinated movement. This is a concrete precedent for reducing a large kinetic commission to testable units. The planning lesson is to evaluate a representative shell’s forces, movement and lighting before committing to repetition across the complete structure and its site assembly.

FoldHaus — RadiaLumia ↗ · Reviewed 2026-10-10

For your project brief

What full-size unit will demonstrate mechanical behavior before the complete structure is fabricated?

Big Art Partners planning prompt

RadiaLumia team organization, described by its cofounder

Design the volunteer work as carefully as the artwork

In a first-person IDEO account, FoldHaus cofounder Joerg Student describes organizing RadiaLumia through smaller groups able to make their own decisions. Volunteers could contribute to folding even without specialist training, while other teams developed controls, including forty-two LED controllers. Early sessions gave participants visible results from their work. For a comparable collaborative build, the useful lesson is to separate accessible, repeatable tasks from specialist responsibilities and provide working demonstrations early enough to sustain participation through a demanding production schedule and final assembly.

IDEO — Joerg Student on building RadiaLumia ↗ · Reviewed 2026-10-10

For your project brief

Which tasks can welcome new volunteers, and which require named technical owners?

Big Art Partners planning prompt

Light art installations ↗Outdoor sculpture & installations ↗Art documented at Burning Man ↗Kinetic sculpture and installations ↗

Plan the next step

How to plan an outdoor sculpture loan ↗How to prepare a site brief for large-scale public art ↗

Sources

www.foldhaus.com ↗ · Checked 2026-09-21