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Sounds good, doesn’t it? A whole city devoted to design! The biggest problem, to avoid FOMO was where to start, with this year’s event covering all corners of the capital. I couldn’t do it all, so headed to the focus for lighting, based in Magazine London, near to the capital’s new ‘Design District’ on the Greenwich peninsula.
This annual event has replaced 100% Design and after last year’s success where the d’arc ‘corridors of light’ focused most of the lighting in one area, (most useful if you are in a rush, and when are we not in a rush nowadays ?!) the lighting was spread and interspersed over two halls.
It appeared that many of the giants of lighting had stayed away and there can be no doubt that being so close to Frankfurt is a major factor in this, so hats off to Artemide, who had a stellar line up of new products on show. It also serves to open the floor to a more diverse range of suppliers, which
can’t be a bad thing.
Stellar Nubula, an instantly Instagrammable family of pendants, floor standing, and table lights designed by BIG, (inspired by soap bubbles) stood out for me on the Artemide stand. Why do I like this product? There are quite a few factors that make it appealing. Firstly, every product will be unique
since each diffuser is hand blown, sure they have set of three different diameters, but this is more of a guide, how can you put a fixed dimension on something as happy and free as these babies? Then you have the iridescent material itself, which due to the design process, means that the colour
spread is different in every diffuser, ensuring an interesting and subtle hue of colour haze, unique to each product.
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Auralis is a new group comprised of three well known historical Italian companies, Penta, Castaldi and Arredoluce. The product that caught my eye was one that was familiar to me, not fresh off the press so to speak (available in this size from 2020) but given the tumultuous few years it may as well
be, and I really fell for its eye catching aesthetic, a finish that changes its appearance when lit, ‘molto bello’ as they would say in that neck of the woods.
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As Alessandro Nisi (regional director for the U.K. and Ireland) explained to me, the lamp shade is made from borosilicate glass, which makes it stronger than normal glass shades. The inner sandblasted glass shade shields the lamp from view, ensuring the light that it produces is soft and comfortable. Given that the product is mainly made from borosilicate glass with a Titanium canopy, its easily recyclable.
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For those in the industry looking for sustainable solutions close to home, there is Applelec, a lighting and signage company based in Yorkshire. We all know the value of ‘light boxes’ in design, making spaces and advertisements ‘ping’, they can be found literally everywhere. With a plethora to choose from, coupled with large amounts of material going into their manufacture, an environmentally friendly solution is a must have on any specification sheet.
David Mullaney (head of projects at Applelec) explained to me – ‘The product we are showing today is our Applelec ECO Lightbox lighting solution, with a real focus on sustainability, and the environment. Rather than using standard Acrylic we use a recycled version, and our green Applelec led light sheet boasts an impressive 190 lumens per watt, with a high CRI of 90 +.’
Interestingly (and surprisingly) this solution is a world first, (utilising recycled and recyclable materials for the light panel). The Light Box itself has a recycled bottle backlit skin (2 bottles per metre squared), is printed with water based non-toxic inks and has a wood pulp backing that is 100% recyclable as paper waste. Environmentally friendly production uses closed loop water, to conserve natural resources, heat recovery systems and hydro plants. All these processes highlight how some companies are striving to produce products with a reduced impact on the environment, which
should be applauded immensely.
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Designer Upcycling!
What do you get when you cross a lamp, mannequin, and an artist? If you are the ‘House of Upcycling’, you get a cool floor lamp! I first came across
this company at Clerkenwell Design Week in 2022, and the concept really sparked my interest. But who are the house of upcycling and what do they do?
In a nutshell they promote designer upcycling, taking what people waste, and turning into what they want, what a great concept! Let’s face it, the one thing this world doesn’t need is more ‘stuff’, we are creaking at the seams so to speak, to repurpose and reuse must be the way forward if we don’t want our oceans to end up as giant pools of flotsam.
The product on show at Design London was a mannequin floor light created by Tracy Horan of Dolly Fixtures. Tracy is a professional up-cycler based in Lewis in East Sussex, and her floor lamps are upcycled from mannequins (just in case you couldn’t tell!).
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Newly released in 2021 (due to the familiar time warp of pandemic madness it’s the first occasion it’s really been exhibited), the Akoya Pendant available in 30cm or 60cm) and wall lamp (available in 30cm) from Fabbian is a gentle and aesthetically pleasing luminaire in with an instantly recognisable form.
Available in white, anthracite corten and bronze finishes, it conveys itself to the user in a subtle play of simple forms, Akoya for those who didn’t guess, is the Japanese term for natural or cultured pearls that come from the akoya-gai-mollusk .
The light of the ‘pearl’ is a glass diffuser which in combination with the circular disks reduce excessive ‘glare’. Speaking to export manager for Elena Favero, I asked her the obvious question of luminaire maintenance, given the lamp is part of the aesthetic. ‘This is an LED module of course, but its interchangeable to comply with the new EU regulations on ECO design, everything is replaceable, we use very high quality LEDs with no more than three macadam steps, cri is 90+ in all our products.‘