Hasta La Ideas

Snow Peak’s latest outdoor light uses gravity to determine its illuminated focal length

Always a step ahead of the rest in the niche outdoor tech industry, Snow Peak makes intuitive and aesthetically focused backpacking gear and adventure-driven accessories. Building on the strength of products like their titanium iphone case, the Tulip Lantern brings a new level of intelligence to portable lighting with a simple design.

Much like the SnowMiner headlamp, the Tulip Lantern can produce a focused or broad stream of light, but in this case, the variation is controlled by gravity. The lantern automatically changes from a narrow beam when hanging to a more ambient glow when placed upright. The pliable, snake-like stem can be adjusted to produce both settings in both positions, making for a perfectly lit camp site.

Producing up to 250 lumens with more than 100 hours of battery life (when set on low), the powerful little lantern will be available 9 March, 2012 from Snow Peak online for $150.

Popular and historic references in a duo of creations by Luca Nichetto

Les Poupées marks the first collaboration between Italian designer Luca Nichetto and French gallerist Pascale Cottard Olsson in Stockholm. Combining a ceramic candle holder with a glass vase, each object blends cultural references from the pure lines of Finnish artist and designer Timo Sarpaneva and the colors of Italian maestro Ettore Sottsass to the silhouette of Japanese kokeshi wooden dolls.

Another new project by Nichetto for David Design, presented at the Stockholm Furniture Fair, is Vader, a lamp that experiments with the possibilities of traditional ceramic production, pushing craftsmanship to the limit in order to create a modern design piece. The range of colors has been chosen with Scandinavian culture in mind, but at the same time reflects the designer’s Venetian origins.

We talked to Nichetto about these and some forthcoming projects.

With Les Poupées, you have been able to merge Scandinavian, Japanese and Italian design. Were you interested in highlighting the differences or the similarities between these three design cultures?

I was mainly focused on understanding how, in a global world, the classic cultures of such different countries could be able to give me some elements, to let me create a functional puzzle and generate objects to be sold. When you buy Les Poupées, you hold a piece of my personal point of view on Scandinavian, Japanese and Italian history.

The Vader lamp is tied to a different, more pop inspiration. Was the reference to Star Wars a starting point or just fortuitous?

This is not meant to be a pop project since the allusion to Star Wars is pure coincidence. The initial intuition was a minimal gesture, just two cuts into ceramics. As a result, a functional light object for the space is capable of underlining the quality of the material itself, a quality which relies also on manufacturing.

Can you give us a preview of the projects you are working on?

I’ll unveil several projects during the Milan Design Week, including new collaborations for Cassina and De Padova. I’m still continuing my research process with Established & Sons, Foscarini, Casamania and Emmegi, but I’ll also be present at Salone del Mobile with small projects for the French editors Petit Friture and La Chance.

Les Poupées are on display at the Hallwyl Museum in Stockholm until 4 March 2012 and sell from Gallery Pascale.

Lightboys a eu l’excellente idée de proposer cet objet design “Rooftop Ceiling Lights”. Reprenant la tradition des peintures au plafond, cette entreprise allemande a eu l’idée de proposer des photographies illuminées, donnant ainsi une profondeur et du relief au plafond.

Previously on Fubiz

• Kazakhstan Subway
• Topographic Projections
• Homeless Projection

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A Florentine light show plays on the city’s renaissance structures

Il Sole sui Tetti (The Sun on the Roofs), a project of contemporary culture and communication, is a citywide installation created by Felice Limosani for Gruppo 24 ORE. This evocative and spectacular event takes place in the heart of the city of Florence—the first edition was launched in June 2011, while the second is on display now through 15 January, 2012.

The majestic renaissance Palazzo Strozzi is the core of “Luci e Ombre” (Lights and Shadows), a video mapping aiming to evoke the big transformations of today’s culture, economy and society. This site-specific work sees an ambitious counterpart in a fascinating network of rays of light, symbolically and visually linking the towers and domes of some of the most beautiful squares of Florence. Departing from Forte Belvedere to the Basilica of Santa Croce, from the tower of Palazzo Vecchio to Giotto’s bell tower in Piazza del Duomo, the rays of white light link various parts of the city, creating new points of view on the city’s iconic beauty.

Felice Limosani tells us that Il Sole sui Tetti was born as a visualization of a clear message: the change in perspective between reality and imagination. The first edition’s setting were some of the most beautiful terraces in Florence, endowed with mirrors and special machinery which gave new and artistic visions on the city. The new project draws on the aesthetics of light and shadows with the languages of video art, performance and light art photography. It’s a tale of light and creates shadows that allow us to understand the light itself. A metaphor to inspire new light to be contrasted to the old shadows.”

Il Sole sui Tetti

Palazzo Strozzi

Florence, Italy 50123

A proposed project from an acclaimed artist aims to illuminate the Bay Bridge

With the rest of the country gathering for scattered tree-lighting ceremonies, Leo Villareal has been busy trying to illuminate another iconic structure: the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Villareal envisions covering the northern expanse of the bridge with The Bay Lights, a dynamic light display that reflects off the surface of the water below. A nod to the 100th anniversary lighting of the Eiffel Tower, the project should come to life just in time to celebrate the 75th silver anniversary of the Bay Bridge in 2012.

The ongoing fundraising for the $7 million project will pay for the installation of 25,000 bulbs (outward-facing to avoid distracting commuters). With the environment in mind, project architects aim to keep energy costs to a fairly modest $11,000 over the proposed two-year installation period. The installation, which takes inspiration from ideas related to connectivity and mobility, promises to make a spectacular sight from the northeast side of San Francisco.

Villareal has an impressive list of large-scale light installations under his belt, but the Bay Lights project would take his work to a monumental new level. To learn more about Villareal, check out our video of the artist from 2007 above.