Stepney Green Design Collection - Paul Cocksedge

In this movie filmed by Dezeen, east London designer Paul Cocksedge describes his discovery of the interesting forms created when polystyrene cups are heated and how he used the process to create a pendant lamp.
Cocksedge first experimented with polystyrene cups ten years ago at the Royal College of Art as part of a project set by Ron Arad, who asked students to "grow a product".
"I placed the cup inside [the oven] and something really beautiful happened," he explains. Heat distorts the shape of polystyrene while strengthening it, and Cocksedge made a movie of the process in reverse that looked like the cups were growing.
He then built a large number of deformed cups into a sphere to create his Styrene lamp. "As a designer we always search for form and interesting aesthetics, but this was like a dream come true because the heat was doing it for me," he continues.
The custom lamp he contributed to the Stepney Green Design Collection is 90cm in diameter - almost twice the size of the designs sold commercially - and was previously on display at the V&A Museum in London as part of an exhibition on British Design. Cocksedge has a studio in London Fields, east London, not far from Stepney Green.
The Stepney Green Design Collection consists of 10 products selected by Marcus Fairs of Dezeen from creatives who live near to VIVO, a new housing development in the east London district. The project also includes objects chosen by east London bloggers Pete Stean of Londoneer and Kate Antoniou of Run Riot.