HORON’s RIFT Series Turns Architectural Design into 3D-Printed Lamps

Header: Courtesy of HORON

HORON’s Rift Series is a collection of small-batch 3D-printed lighting objects that explores the relationship between architectural form, material texture and the way light inhabits space. The series approaches lighting as a spatial condition: something that can be shaped, filtered, softened and precisely released.

Designed by Yongwon Kwon, a licensed architect based in New York, the RIFT Series brings architectural thinking into the scale of an everyday object. Each piece is developed through a careful balance of geometry, fabrication and light behaviour, treating form not as an ornament but as a fundamental part of the object’s performance.

Similar to architectural design, the process begins with spatial questions: Where should light be hidden? Where should it escape? How can a simple geometric form create a more layered atmosphere? The result is a family of lighting pieces that function as ambient lamps, sculptural objects and quiet architectural studies for the home.

The process behind the series

The RIFT Series is made in small batches using 3D-printed PLA, a bio-based plastic often produced from renewable sources. Instead of hiding the 3D-printing process, HORON embraces it completely: the layer lines become part of the surface, giving each lamp a fine horizontal grain. It is treated in the same practical way as other material traces in architecture: wood has grain, concrete has formwork, stone has veining, and 3D-printed PLA has layers.

The layered surface also affects how the lamp gives off light, since the fine lines soften the glow as it passes through the printed shell or moves across its surface. Furthermore, since each lamp is made in small batches, the form can be tested and adjusted during production.

The RIFT Series

The RIFT Series includes four forms, all of which explore a different geometric condition: the Cylinder, the Rectangle, the Triangle and the Split.

The Cylinder emphasises continuity, with its rounded body letting light move around the form and a slot around the edge releasing a warm glow from inside. The Rectangle has a straighter, more structured shape. A side opening lets light pass through the lamp, showing the contrast between the printed outer shell, the shadow inside and the warm glow coming through the cut.

The Triangle has angled sides, with a ribbed surface that breaks up the light along the printed layers and an open side that sends the glow more directly in one direction. The Split is shaped around an opening in the body. Light passes through the gap and catches the ribbed 3D-printed surface, which softens the glow. The break also creates small changes in shadow and texture around the lamp. Each lamp is available in either grey blue or olive green.

A study of light

At the centre of the RIFT Series is a study of light, as the collection is designed around the difference between ambient light and pointed light and how these two qualities can coexist within one object.

Ambient light is soft, indirect and atmospheric. It is the quiet glow that fills a room without demanding attention, and, in RIFT, this quality is created through the lamp’s internal volume and layered printed shell. Pointed light, by contrast, is more focused and intentional. It appears through intentional slits, gaps and openings in the form, creating sharper lines of brightness, subtle highlights and directional accents.

The design is built around the tension between these two conditions. The lamp conceals light, then releases it. It diffuses glow, then cuts it through precise openings. It creates atmosphere but also defines edges. This balance allows RIFT to shift between object and effect: by day, it looks like a sculptural geometric lamp, while by night, it becomes an instrument for controlling and shaping light.

Project information

Lighting Design Company: HORON
Lead Designer: Yongwon Kwon
Dimensions: 6 × 6 × 9.5 in
Location: New York, United States
Date: 2026