Breathing Light

Breathing Light is a 3D-printed lighting project that translates the rhythm of breath from an immersive installation into a standalone table lamp. Through non-planar printing, translucent material, and soft diffusion, it explores the quiet dialogue between body, space, and light.

The original installation used light and shadow to invite visitors to become aware of their own breathing. Rather than imitating breath directly, the work created a soft atmospheric condition, where the space seemed to respond to the body's presence.

Continuing Lr. Design's research into non-planar 3D printing and direct G-code programming, Breathing Light introduces subtle undulations and controlled translucency. Its layered surface records the movement of the printhead while diffusing light like air passing through a living body. As one moves around the piece, its glow and shadow shift gently across the surface.

The project was later developed into a standalone table lamp, capturing a single suspended moment within the larger rhythm of breathing. In product form, Breathing Light brings the installation's atmosphere into everyday interiors, creating a quiet object for stillness, warmth, and reflection.

Runxin Fu is an architect and designer based in New York. He holds a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design (MSAAD) from Columbia University GSAPP and a Bachelor of Architecture from Harbin Institute of Technology. His practice operates across architecture, product design, and fabrication research, with a sustained interest in how digital manufacturing processes — particularly non-planar 3D printing and robotic fabrication — can produce forms that carry the trace of their making.

Fu is the founder of PreTangia studio and the Lr. Design brand, through which he develops objects and interiors that apply advanced fabrication techniques to the constraints and pleasures of everyday use. His work engages with sustainability not as a set of materials substitutions but as a design logic: modularity, repairability, and closed-loop material recovery built into the object's structure from the outset.