Caustics are captivating light patterns created by materials bundling or diverting light by refraction or reflection. We know caustics as random side effects, appearing, for example, at the bottom of a swimming pool. In this work we show that it is possible to control caustic patterns to form almost any desired shape by optimizing the geometry of the reflective or refractive surface generating the caustic. We demonstrate how this surprising result offers a new perspective on light control and the use of caustics as an inspiring architectural design element. Several produced prototypes illustrate that physical realizations of such optimized geometry are feasible.

News

Discovery Channel Canada covers the project in their science show Daily Planet on Feb. 6th 2013

"Light Tamers" - Article by Philip Ball in the New Scientist - see also the online version of the article

BLDG BLOG article on caustic engineering.

Swiss TV program NOUVU features the project (in French). The video also shows the public presentation of the Turing piece during the EPFL Alan Turing Days.

Euronews features the project (in German). The video also shows the public presentation of the Turing piece during the EPFL Alan Turing Days.

Mark explains the project on the EPFL news channel.

Our paper was awarded the Best Paper Award in the category Theory and Algorithms at the Symposium on Advances in Architectural Geometry 2012


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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Florian Rist and Raimund Krenmuller from the Institute for Arts and Design at TU Vienna for producing the aluminum prototype and Turing piece. Also thanks to Claude Cheseaux and Alfred Thomas of EPFL for fabricating several prototypes.

Contact

For more information contact lgg-info@epfl.ch.