Exhale: Bionic Chandelier

‘Exhale: Bionic Chandelier’ is a living breathing artwork. This very first of its kind creation was designed by Julian Melchiorri, an Italian and british designer and creator. Melchiorri is also founder and chief executive officer of Arborea, a biochemical technology company. He, in addition to his group of experts, developed the globe’s initial lights fixture that used bionic-leaf innovations.

Taking influence from the museum’s Art Nouveau and Islamic Art collections, Melchiorri created a detailed layering of 70 glass leaf concepts and installed them with living micro-algae. The whole structure is kept by a life-support mechanism, developed by Arborea engineers, that feeds and receives the micro-ecosystem.

Entering the Victoria and Albert Museum, site visitors expect to see contemporary and timeless jobs of human resourcefulness and creative thinking. What they may not anticipate to see is a living microorganism as an artwork. Look up in the sunlight stairwell of the museum’s west wing to see an elaborate, living lighting fixture.

Primarily, the light fixture is going through a process known as photosynthesis. It is taking carbon dioxide out of the air and launching oxygen, just like how plants take light energy to produce chemical energy. The device functions as an air cleanser and resource of light.