LUCENT
Beer Pixel Wall — an interactive pixel display that transforms discarded beer bottles into a programmable visual installation.
The project combines upcycling, modular construction and digital interaction to create a sustainable branding experience for hospitality spaces.
Bars generate a constant stream of empty glass. LUCENT takes that waste and re-reads it as an optical material: the thick, moulded base of a beer bottle behaves like a lens, so a single LED behind it blooms into a soft, round pixel. Stacked into a grid, the bottles become a low-resolution screen with a texture no display panel can imitate.
Design Approach
Upcycling
Discarded beer bottles are collected, cleaned and reframed as the optical unit of the display — waste becomes the pixel.
Modular Construction
A repeatable bottle-and-rack module allows the wall to scale in rows and columns, and to be dismantled and rebuilt on site.
Digital Interaction
Addressable LEDs sit behind each bottle base, driven as a low-resolution matrix so patterns, text and animations can be programmed.
Branding Experience
Designed for hospitality spaces — bars and taprooms get a sustainable, ownable light feature built from their own waste stream.
Process
Collection & Preparation
Bottles sourced from local waste, de-labelled, washed and sorted by glass tint so the colour field reads evenly across the grid.
Rack & Frame
A plywood back panel with timber rails holds each bottle neck-inward, keeping the bases flush at the viewing face and the light chamber sealed behind.
Light Matrix
Individually addressable LED strips are mapped one-per-bottle, turning the wall into a controllable pixel grid.
Programming
Colour gradients, waves and pattern sequences were written and tuned live against the physical wall to account for glass diffusion.