Waves, domes, cylinders, floating islands and stacked multi level shapes, lit from inside. We roll the frame on our own CNC in Dania Beach, so the outline is drawn to your design instead of picked out of a tile catalog.
A freeform luminous form is a lit ceiling or wall element whose outline is fabricated rather than selected. The structure is LuxForm AP-213 extruded aluminum (6063, available in 8 in and 4.5 in profile heights, 13 ft 1-1/2 in / 4000 mm stock) roll bent on our CNC into arcs, then welded and combined in production into waves, rings, cylinders, domes, islands and stacked multi level shapes. AP-216 handles floating shapes, AP-301 / AP-302 / AP-302-W handle the cove and perimeter conditions, and AP-305 / AP-306 / AP-307 drop linear light lines into or across the form. Inside the form sits a 24V LED field. A translucent stretch membrane closes the bottom face, and the entire surface becomes the light source. Light transmission of the diffused membrane measured 42.0% (test report, Poznan University of Technology, method per CIE 130-1998).
A fixture gives you the shape the fixture comes in. A tile or panel system gives you its module, and that module ends up in your ceiling plan. A bent frame gives you the shape you actually drew, at any radius our shop can roll, in one continuous lit plane with no visible module. Because we fabricate and install, one company produces the shop drawings, rolls the profile, lays out the LED field, and stretches the membrane. That closes the usual gap between the lighting package and the ceiling package, which is exactly where hot spots, mismatched dimming and unreachable drivers get created. We have been installing since 2014, we serve Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach out of our own shop in Dania Beach, and on large commercial projects we build a lit mockup before you commit to the real thing.
AP-213 goes on our own CNC roller and comes off as the arc on your drawing. Sweeping curves, tight rings, ovals, S curves and closed shapes all come from the same profile. Below our rolled minimum we switch to mitered segments, welded and dressed, so even a tight radius stays possible. There is no panel module to design around and no grid line to hide.
Same company for the shop drawings, the bent frame, the 24V LED layout, the driver locations and the membrane. Nobody hands a curved ceiling to a lighting contractor who has never seen a stretch membrane, and nobody discovers on site that the driver landed above a fixed ceiling. One drawing set, one crew, Florida lead times.
On large commercial projects we build a physical mockup of the actual condition: your cavity depth, your LED pitch, your membrane finish, your dimming. That is how you settle brightness, evenness and CCT with your own eyes instead of arguing about numbers on paper. On every project we support the design with the LED manufacturer’s published strip data and dimensioned sections, since we hold no lab photometry for the lit assembly.
The spaces where we install this system most.
Arrival halls and lobbies where the lit ceiling has to follow a curved plan instead of fighting it, plus floating luminous islands, waves and rings over a restaurant or bar that define a zone without building a soffit.
Feature ceilings that carry the brand shape, with matching lit wall panels in the same language so the ceiling and the wall are one detail instead of two trades.
Corporate lobbies, elevator lobbies and reception soffits built as stacked multi level lit shapes, dimmed on one zone map from the front desk.
Great rooms, stair volumes and primary bedrooms with domed or coved luminous forms, plus wellness and spa rooms running tunable white 2700K to 6500K on a schedule.
The assembly goes together in nine steps, in this order.
1. Survey and rationalize the geometry. We field verify the space and model your form from measured conditions. Intent geometry gets rationalized into arcs and straight runs the CNC can actually roll. If a curve has to change, we tell you which one and by how much, in writing, before anything is cut.
2. Shop drawings and profile selection. AP-213 is the workhorse for a luminous form edge, in 8 in profile height where the cavity has to be deep and 4.5 in where the ceiling is tight. AP-216 for floating shapes. AP-301 (wall perimeter), AP-302 (ceiling top) and AP-302-W (wall perimeter D, 2 in x 1 in) for cove and halo conditions. AP-305 / AP-306 / AP-307 mini, midi and maxi for linear light lines crossing or bordering the form. The drawing set shows every arc with its radius and chord, every splice, every hanger, every LED row and every driver location.
3. CNC roll bending in Dania Beach. Each arc is rolled from 4000 mm stock to its own radius and labeled to the drawing. Minimum rolled radius depends on the profile, its height and the tooling on the machine, so we confirm it per profile before the drawing is issued. Tell us the tightest radius on your plan and we will tell you in writing whether it rolls, whether it has to be faceted, and what tolerance we will hold on it. Tighter than the rolled minimum and the web ripples or the flange distorts, and you will see it once the membrane is lit. Below the minimum we go faceted: short mitered segments welded and dressed into the curve. Facets disappear at long radius and read as flats at small scale, so we tell you which one you are getting. We hold the tolerance stated on the approved shop drawing for each arc, and we test fit large forms flat in the shop before they ship.
4. Splice, weld and jig. AP-213 comes in 13 ft 1-1/2 in stock. Most of the other profiles come in 6.5 ft. Any run longer than the stock length for that profile gets a splice. Splices are joined and dressed flush, placed off the tightest part of the curve and away from primary sight lines. Large forms are assembled flat on the shop floor in sections sized to fit the truck and the building opening, test fit, match marked, then broken down.
5. Suspension and backing. A threaded rod or unistrut grid goes to structure first, then the aluminum ring hangs from it. Hanger spacing is set on the shop drawings for each form and reviewed against the structure, with a hanger at every splice and every change of direction. Curves and long spans get tighter spacing than straight runs. Hangers land on structure or on bridging, never on ductwork and never on a sprinkler line.
6. LED field. 24V constant voltage strip on aluminum carriers or on a white painted backer, laid to the row spacing the cavity depth requires. On a curved or dished form the rows are drawn on a developed (unrolled) view, dimensioned, and cut to that drawing, because the perpendicular distance to the membrane changes across the surface and the pitch has to change with it. Low voltage bus, injection points, and the run back to the driver enclosure all come off the same sheet.
7. Burn in and aim. Full power burn in before the membrane goes on. We look for dead segments, reel to reel color variation, and edge flare where the field runs too close to a profile leg. Fixing a hot spot at this stage takes minutes. Fixing it after the membrane is stretched takes a crew.
8. Membrane. A harpoon edge is welded to a membrane panel cut to the exact developed shape of your form. On site the panel is warmed, stretched and tucked into the profile channel. Translucent diffused membrane for anything backlit, at roughly 8 mil nominal PVC. Printed translucent where you want a graphic that lights up. CLIPSO knit fabric where the same shape also has to work acoustically, clipped in cold and dry. CLIPSO is a fine matte woven textile and reads as a flat fabric face from the floor. We hold no ASTM C423 and no NRC absorption data for it, so if your spec calls for a number, tell us early and we will say plainly what we can and cannot supply.
9. Serviceability check and handover. Before we leave we un-clip and re-clip one panel to prove the surface is demountable, then hand over an access map showing every driver, every junction and every panel that opens. That is the real difference from drywall and tile: the lit face comes down and goes back up. It is a demountable surface, not a patch and repaint.
These are the numbers that decide whether the finished ceiling looks like one clean sheet of light or like a row of stripes. They come from our own production and installs, so treat them as shop standard, not laboratory data.
Our working rule, from our own installs and not from a lab, is that the distance from any LED to the membrane should be at least the distance between adjacent LED rows. Our usual build is a 6 in cavity with rows at 6 in on center. Starting points we work from: 4 in cavity with rows at 4 in on center, 6 in at 6 in, 8 in at 8 in, 10 to 12 in at 10 to 12 in.
Deeper is always cleaner and always more forgiving, and on a large commercial project we confirm the real spacing with a lit mockup at your cavity depth and your finish. Below 4 in you will see striping no matter what you spend, so if the ceiling can only give 3 in we move to a denser strip and add diffusion above the membrane, and we will say so plainly before you commit. On a large commercial project we prove the build with a mockup first.
On a curve the cavity is not one number. Measure the shortest perpendicular distance from the LED plane to the membrane, not the average, because that shortest point is where the stripe shows first. On a dome or a dished island the crown is closest to the light, so we tighten row spacing where the cavity is shallow and open it where the cavity is deep. That layout is drawn, not improvised on site.
60 LED/m is the baseline for a 6 in or deeper cavity. 120 LED/m for anything under 5 in. 240 LED/m or COB inside tight coves and inside AP-305 mini. Denser strip is cheaper than a deeper ceiling every time you can get it.
Four things, in order of how often we see them. First, the LED field running too close to a profile leg, which flares the edge. Keep at least 2 in clear between the last row and any leg, and pull the field back 2 to 3 in from the perimeter of a form. Second, a cavity that pinches somewhere the drawing did not show, usually at a splice plate or a hanger bracket.
Third, mixing strip reels or driver batches inside one continuous lit surface, which shows as a visible step in brightness and in color, not as a gradient. One strip batch and one driver model per continuous plane, and break zones at physical breaks in the form. Fourth, a concave to convex transition with no intermediate rib. The membrane wants to shortcut across an S curve, so a concave run tighter than about 24 in radius gets a hold down rib to keep the cavity honest.
Everything above the membrane from driver to diode is low voltage 24V, and voltage drop sets the run length, not amperage. We calculate feed points, injection and trunk size for the actual strip and load on your job, then show every feed and injection point on the shop drawing. Where the enclosure has to sit far from the form we upsize the trunk, and past that we set a remote enclosure closer to the load rather than pretend the drop does not exist.
This is the one thing that gets designed wrong most often. Drivers must sit in a genuinely accessible location: a closet, above a cabinet, in a soffit with a hatch, or in a dedicated enclosure. Minimum access we ask for is a 24 in by 24 in hatch. Plan one accessible enclosure per zone. Driver count comes off the load calculation for your layout, and we size drivers with headroom rather than running them at their limit.
Every driver location is shown on the shop drawing and we ask for sign off before fabrication starts. The membrane being demountable is your safety net, not your service plan. Nobody should have to drop a 40 ft luminous ceiling to change a driver.
0-10V, DALI-2 and DMX are all standard, and Casambi type wireless where it is specified. Tunable white 2700K to 6500K needs two channels per zone. RGBW needs four. CCT options are 2700K, 3000K, 3500K, 4000K, 5000K and 6500K. Put the zone map and the channel count on the drawings early, because adding a zone after the frame is welded means pulling wire through a finished cavity.
Do not pack insulation directly against the strip and do not seal the cavity tight against a hot deck. We keep the cavity at 4 in or more and ask for insulation above the deck with clear air below. PVC membrane is temperature sensitive, so we keep the cavity ventilated and we do not let it sit tight against a hot deck. Where the deck condition is severe we review the cavity with you and confirm the working limit with the membrane and strip manufacturers before we build.
We issue the dead load for your specific frame, membrane and LED layout with the shop drawings, so your structural engineer sizes hangers and backing to a real number instead of an allowance. Ask early and we will give you a preliminary figure for the form you are drawing. We need the supporting structure to hold plus or minus 1/4 in over the form, because a floating island that moves telegraphs at the reveal line.
Sprinklers, smoke detection, speakers, diffusers and access hatches must be located before we fabricate. Anything that penetrates a luminous field becomes a dark spot, so we would rather move it off the lit surface, and where it cannot move we ring it with our own trim and work the LED layout around it. Sprinkler head placement below the membrane is coordinated with the fire protection engineer and the AHJ.
ASTM E84 was run per finish on white specimens: gloss FSI 5 and SDI 300, matte FSI 10 and SDI 300, satin FSI 15 and SDI 250. The laboratory assigned no classification. The specimens were not mounted per ASTM E2573, and the test covers the membrane only, not an installed assembly. On that data the membrane is not permitted in return air plenums, so no return air moves through the cavity. The full report is available on request.
A single extrusion bends in one plane. True double curvature, a sphere or a saddle, is built as a rib cage with membrane panels clipped into each bay, and the rib lines are part of the design. Below the rolled minimum radius you get facets. A concave luminous surface reads slightly brighter toward the crown, which we compensate with pitch, not with wishful thinking.
And translucent PVC comes off a roll, so a large luminous field is high frequency welded into one skin. We show every weld line on the drawing and place it over a rib or off the main sight line. CLIPSO fabric is seamless to 16 ft 8 in where a continuous face matters more than backlighting.
Rolled, our shop standard minimum inside radius is about 48 in for AP-213 at 8 in profile height, about 30 in at 4.5 in height, about 24 in for AP-216, and about 12 in for the AP-301 / AP-302 cove profiles. Below that the web ripples and the flange distorts, and once the surface is lit you will see it. Tighter shapes get built as short mitered segments, welded and dressed. Faceted curves disappear at long radius and read as flats at small scale, so we tell you up front which one your drawing is getting.
Yes on the model, no on the photometrics, and we would rather say so than send you a file we invented. We publish a Revit family for AP-213 that is geometry only with no photometric data attached, plus DWG and PDF drawings for every profile.
We hold no LM-79, no LM-80, no TM-21 and no IES data for the lit assembly, so we publish no photometric output figures for it. On a large commercial project we build a lit mockup at your real cavity depth, your LED pitch, your membrane finish and your dimming protocol, so you evaluate it with your own eyes. The one measured optical number we own is 42.0% light transmission through the diffused membrane, per a Poznan University of Technology test report using the method in CIE 130-1998. That is a test report, not a certificate. Strip level data from the LED manufacturer is available on request as manufacturer data.
Drivers sit in an accessible location that gets fixed early: a closet, above a cabinet, a soffit with a hatch, or a dedicated enclosure, with a 24 in by 24 in minimum access opening. We show every driver location on the shop drawings and ask for sign off before we fabricate.
On the ceiling side the membrane is demountable, so a technician un-clips a panel, works in the cavity and re-clips it without damaging the finish. We prove that on site at closeout and hand over an access map. That said, the demountable face is a safety net, not a maintenance plan. We will push back on any layout that buries a driver above a fixed ceiling.
Not on the data we hold. Our ASTM E84 results are per finish on white specimens: gloss FSI 5 / SDI 300, matte FSI 10 / SDI 300, satin FSI 15 / SDI 250. The laboratory assigned no classification, the specimens were not mounted per ASTM E2573, and the test covers the membrane only, not an installed assembly. So the correct answer is no return air through the cavity, and no plenum claim from us.
To be explicit about the gaps, so nobody finds out at submittal: we hold no NFPA 701, no NFPA 286 and no NFPA 265, no ASTM E2573 mounted-assembly test, no UL 2043 rating, and no Florida Product Approval or Miami-Dade NOA for this assembly. Our ASTM E84 results cover the PVC membrane only. They do not cover the CLIPSO acoustic fabric, which is a different material from a different manufacturer, so ask us before you write the acoustic option into a fire spec.
Sprinkler head placement, smoke detection and any required penetrations get coordinated with the fire protection engineer and the AHJ before fabrication. We provide penetration rings and lay out the LED field around them.
AP-213 comes in 13 ft 1-1/2 in (4000 mm) stock, so any perimeter longer than that is spliced. Splices are welded and dressed, and they are placed on the drawing where the curve is easiest and the sight line is weakest, never at the tightest part of an arc. Forms are shop assembled in sections sized to the truck and the building opening, test fit, match marked and rebuilt on site.
On the membrane side, translucent PVC comes off a roll, so a large luminous field is high frequency welded into one skin. A weld line can read faintly on a backlit surface if the LED plane is too close, which is one more reason we hold the cavity at 6 in where we can and place seams over a rib.
Yes. The membrane can be printed and translucent at the same time, so a wave or a dome can carry a graphic and glow through it. Two practical notes. Dense dark ink drops transmitted light in that area, so we adjust LED density behind heavy artwork rather than accept a dull patch. And print resolution should be checked against viewing distance, since a ceiling read from 9 ft is a different file from a lobby wall read from 3 ft. We proof the artwork before printing the full run, and on a large commercial project we mock up a printed section first.
What we hold today and issue on request:
Reserved and not yet published. Listed by name so nobody assumes it exists:
A panel manufacturer builds tiles, panels and modules in fixed sizes, so every shape has to be resolved into their grid and that grid ends up in your reflected ceiling plan. We bend the frame to your outline on our own CNC and install it ourselves, which means a wave, a dome or a closed ring arrives as one continuous lit surface with no module line to design around, and a change to the outline is a drawing revision instead of a product that does not exist.
Our profile cross-sections, dimensions and the full color chart live in the technical library. CAD files are sent on request, usually within one business day.
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