Inhabitat

Europe’s Incandescent Light Bulb Ban Begins Today

Europe’s ban on incandescent light bulbs goes into effect today in an attempt to enforce energy efficiency standards on lighting. As of today, retail stores are no longer allowed to purchase high wattage incandescent light bulbs to offer to customers. In fairness to shopowners, they are, however, allowed to continue to sell whatever they have in stock until supplies run out. While many hail this as a necessary restriction in order to advance efforts against climate change, others complain that the ban is an attack on personal preferences. We’re excited to see the change and look forward to when the US’s efficiency standards are elevated as well.

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Cassette Tape Lamps Add Warm Analog Glow to Any Room

Although they may hold nostalgic value for some, cassette tapes are bulky, have poor sound quality, lack large format album artwork, and a stacked up collection of them just doesn’t have the je ne sais quoi as a crate full of vinyl. To keep this 80’s technology out of the landfill, ooomydesign has used old cassette tapes to create a series of gorgeous glowing lamps.

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Sleek Solar and Wind Powered Hybrid Street Lamps

As designers strive to create a more sustainable future, we’re thrilled to see designs that integrate a variety of renewable energy technologies into objects we encounter in everyday life. This innovative hybrid wind and solar powered street lamp is just such a solution – not only does it use renewable energy to provide light, it’s a stylish update to an everyday object that is capable of operating completely off-grid. The hybrid streetlamps consist of a solar array topped with a wind turbine, and they are capable of generating up to 380 W of power.

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Firewinder: The Wind Powered Outdoor Light

The Firewinder is an innovative outdoor light solution, powered entirely by the wind! Inspired and developed by young British inventor Tom Lawton, the Firewinder spins as the wind blows, turning into an eco-friendly night light. Lawton developed the light with a wish to highlight the invisible beauty and endless resource of alternative energies, and what a great job he did! Find …

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Plastic Spoon Chandelier by Daisuke Hiraiwa

We’re perpetually amazed by the way that Japanese designer Daisuke Hiraiwa transforms everyday objects into striking examples of found design, and we were particularly impressed with his incredible line of Indication chandeliers – made from recycled plastic spoons. Exhibited at this year’s ICFF, each one is completely composed of clear plastic spoons that have been punctured with hundreds of tiny holes to allow light to filter through them in beautiful ways.

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Levent & Romme’s Elegant Laser-Cut Paper Lamps

These wonderful patterned paper lamps from Brooklyn–based Levent & Romme really caught our eye at this year’s BKLYN Designs show. Realized first as pen and ink illustrations, the patterns are then cut into a single sheet of thick watercolor paper. The paper is softly textured and opaque enough to make the designs pop, and the rigidity lends itself to the shades’ intricate cuts. Upping the coolness (and sustainability) quotient, the shade fits together using a tabbed design so that it forms a tube without any fasteners or adhesives.

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Milan 2009: Philips Debuts Ledino Lighting Collection

As part of the Euroluce exhibition at the Milan Furniture Fair, Royal Philips Electronics showcased a wide range of cutting edge LED lighting products. Our favorite designs on display were part of their newly debuted Ledino collection, an extensive range of stylish indoor and outdoor fixtures that provide 80% energy savings over standard incandescent bubs. The lights have a very low wattage and minimal CO2 emissions, but it is much more than their energy efficiency that makes these lights notable.

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Bright Idea: Claudio Fiumicelli Hexagon LED Lamp

Claudio Fiumicelli really knows how to light up a room! The Studiodsgn artist presented his futuristic C60 LED modular lighting unit at the Zona Tortona design event to critical acclaim. Resembling an illuminated transparent soccer ball, the C60 is comprised of hexagonal pieces that attach to each other in a spherical or planar structure and 360 LED lights, C60 can be hung, mounted on a wall or displayed simply on a flat surface.

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ChunWei Liao Elevates Common Cardboard to Design

At Milan’s 2009 furniture fair, Designersblock did not depart from its habit of showing the very best in fresh new design, and ChunWei Liao’s Transformer furniture and lighting collection is the perfect example of the show’s unique and innovative spirit. The Taiwanese designer presented a stellar catalog of work, but the most interesting product in the series was the lamp grandly named “Transformer Lighting Infinity.”

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Toby Sanders Lights Up Milan with Beach Ball Lamps

Some of the most exciting discoveries from the Milan Furniture Fair 2009 can be seen at the Designersblock show, an exhibition of some of the edgiest experiments in modern design. That’s where Toby Sanders, from the design studio TOBYhouse, recently …

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Performance Art by LED-covered Sheep?!

We’ve seen LEDs as great green lighting solutions in many cases, becoming more ubiquitous in lightbulbs, lamps, and more. And now a new use for LEDs: as performance art for sheep! Artistic collective BaaaStuds recently strapped thousands of LEDs to the backs of hundreds of sheep, and choreographed their movements for some pretty impressive visual arrangements. Gives new meaning to the term ‘Environmental Art’! We’ll let the video speak for itself.

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Soil Powered Lamp: A Fresh Take on “Dirty Energy”

Soil naturally contains energy conducive metals like zinc, copper and iron, and microbial fuel cells (sometimes referred to as an earth batteries) are capable of converting electrolytes in soil into usable energy. Dutch designer Marieke Strap’s Soil Lamp uses conductive plates made from copper and zinc buried within the soil to provide constant and (nearly) eternal light for an LED bulb. Maintaining a Soil Lamp is as simple as watering a plant – just feed it a splash of water every now and then to keep the energy flowing.

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Ikea Unveils Solar Powered Lights for Summer!

Spring is slowly emerging and we are dreaming of outdoor barbecues and parties on the deck. We have a couple of solar powered lanterns along the pathway, but we have been waiting for some lights with a little more pizazz. Last year we were excited to hear that Ikea would be stocking solar products, and now the first products are about to hit the market! These hip little lights are exactly what you need to brighten your outdoor spaces this summer.

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Times Square Unveils A Dazzling LED New Year’s Ball

This New Year’s Eve Times Square in New York is set to debut a dazzling new LED-encrusted New Year’s ball! Composed of 32,256 Philips Luxeon Rebel LEDs, the 12-foot wide energy-efficient orb weighs in at 11,875 pounds, making it twice the size of any ball previously dropped overhead in Time Square. A marriage of tradition and new technology, the stunning new sphere will be ringing in the 100th anniversary of the New Year’s Eve ball.

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New York City to Install Super-Efficient LED Streetlamps

Over the past year we’ve been thoroughly impressed with New York’s ever-lengthening list of green credentials. The Big Apple already has a plastic bag tax, an amazing mass transit system, LEED certified skyscrapers, and car free zones, and we’re excited to announce that NYC will soon be installing a new breed of super-efficient LED street lamps. The new units will be tested this coming year in a select area, and if successful, one day all of New York’s 300,000 lights will be replaced with new LED versions.

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Brilliant Wine Packaging Converts Into a Lamp

When creativity, ecology and innovation collide, packaging becomes the product. This sleek wine box by Ciclus converts into a table lamp with no extra parts required. The packaging is made with wood from local, managed forests and recycled cardboard. Inside is a locally and ecologically produced bottle of Cava, Spanish sparkling wine.

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Bruce Munro’s Brilliant Fiber Optic Fields of Light

Bruce Munro’s gorgeous fiber optic ‘Field of Light‘ installation is inspired by the beautiful displays of flowers that burst forth from Australia’s desert landscape. The UK based lighting designer conceived of the installation 15 years ago while driving across Stuart Highway on a road trip through Australia. Every night he would stop to rest at roadside campsite, where green grass and surreal sculptures struck a stark contrast to the surrounding red desert. Munro was fascinated by these oases, and how dormant desert seeds would burst into beautiful flowers when it rained. The idea followed Munro for years all the way back to the UK until he could finally bring it to life in a brilliant installation at the Eden Project in Cornwall.

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The Bright Idea Light Bulb Shade

Many of our readers have already switched out their incandescent light bulbs in favor of energy-efficient CFLs, and for this we applaud you! However for those out there who have not made the switch, it may be due to concerns over the bright glare that these bulbs emit. Enter the Bright Idea Shade, a beautiful open-source bulb shade composed of interlocking polygonal pieces. It was created at the Eyebeam OpenLab, an art and technology center in New York that encourages creative thinking and open-source designs.

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The Interactive Dobpler LED Wall Turns Shadows Into Light

This past year, people walking through the pedestrian tunnel in Sandnes Sentrum, Norway, were faced with the unique opportunity to watch their shadows transform into a beautiful luminous art show. Constructed as part of the city’s European Capitol of Culture 2008 event, the Strømer, is an interactive LED display wall that weaves a wonderful mixture of art, energy-efficiency and play into the fabric of daily existence.

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London Design Festival: Ash Pendant Lamp by Tom Raffield

Designed by Tom Raffield, co-founder of Sixixis, these beautiful Ash Pendant lamps are formed from 80 meters worth of locally-sourced FSC-certified English ash. Their delicate interwoven shades are steam-bent, and each is illuminated by a giant low-energy bulb. The design was recently featured in [re]design’s Lighten Up exhibition.

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London Design Festival: LIGHTEN UP by [re]design

One of the highlights from this year’s London Design Festival was LIGHTEN UP, an illuminated exhibition that featured 64 innovative lighting solutions from UK designers. Presented by [re]design at this year’s 100% Design, the event focused upon “Looking beyond the bulb” and showcased a variety of ways that “sustainability is driving the evolution of new technologies, aesthetics, materials, and interactions”. Read on for a selection of our favorite designs!

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London Design Festival: CAPtivate Lamp by Lula Dot

Composed entirely from damaged PET bottles and an eclectic assortment of found bottle caps, CAPtivate is an innovative lamp designed by London based studio and gallery Lula Dot. A gorgeous re-use of recycled materials, the design took center stage at 100% Design as part of [re]design’s “Lighten Up” exhibition (the follow up to 2007’s Sit Up exhibition).

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TwistTogether LED Block Lamps from Glide

We first spotted Glide Design’s gorgeous TwistTogether Block Lights back at BKLYN Design in 2005, and we’ve been fans of the innovative design ever since. Like a design product love-child between Legos and Ingo Maurer, TwistTogether lights will please interior design snobs as much as they will delight curious children. The colorful LED-illuminated cubes come in sets of four, and each block can be attached to any other block with a simple key mechanism, allowing a wide variety of configurations. Since the lamps are composed of LEDs, they are safe, cool-to-the-touch, consume less power than a nightlight, and will last forever — significantly ramping up their green quotient. We recently reviewed the kid appeal of TwistTogether lamps over on our baby blog Inhabitots.

Read more about TwistTogether lights at Inhabitots.com >

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Sharp’s Earthquake Detecting Solar Streetlights

Although not as aesthetically pleasing as those bio-mimicking Leaf lamps, these solar streetlights not only provide ample nighttime lighting, but also offer assistance in the event of a major earthquake. Sharp’s streetlamps charge during the day and light up the night with their powerful and energy-efficient high-intensity LED spotlights. In the event of an earthquake measuring 5.0 or greater, these streetlights will turn on full brightness all night long to light streets and sidewalks, aiding in emergency relief efforts.

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China’s Next Great Wall: An Interview With Simone Giostra

Earlier this year, Inhabitat covered GreenPIX , Simone Giostra’s groundbreaking Zero Energy Media Wall in Beijing. Recently ScribeMedia Arts & Culture released an excellent interview where the architect explains how he pitched the proposal to the client and developed the concept and installation. Giostra describes the GreenPIX wall as a form of “dynamic architecture” made of “hardware, software and content”.

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Chain Desk Lamp: Bright and Compact

Working during the day, using old-fashioned sunlight, is no doubt the best option for eco-saavy individuals looking to save energy. But as life sometimes requires working into the wee hours of the night, the Chain Desk Lamp, designed by Ilaria Marelli, offers a bright working environment while making use of LED technology.

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Solar LED ‘Leaf’ Streetlights by Jongoh Lee

What if instead of standard streetlights your nighttime walks were brightened by light-laden boughs of luminous leaves? That’s the concept behind Jongoh Lee’s elegant Invisible Streetlight, a solar-powered alternative to those ubiquitous energy-sucking globes posted throughout parks and other public spaces. The lamps are designed to wind around existing branches, seamlessly integrating into their environs to enchanting effect. The design makes a wonderful addition to the current crop of beautiful biomimetic led lamps.

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HOM LIFESTYLE: The Whole Green Prefab Package

Often overshadowed in the prefab debate by their sexier cousin, the modular home, manufactured homes are not usually synonymous with sustainability or style. Until now, that is. Introducing HOM (pronounced ‘home’ and written with a fancy phonetic symbol), a new line of green manufactured homes, furniture, lighting and accessories for the consumer who cares about living lightly on the land, in style, and with a close connection to nature. Designed by KAA Design Group, a Los Angeles-based architecture, interior design, landscape architecture and branding company, HOM is sold as a lifestyle, not just a house, and proves beyond a doubt that this is not your average double wide.

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Beautiful Flatpack ‘Penta Lamp’ by Cosca Design

Luca Casarotto of Cosca Design in Northern Italy sent us over some images of their new Penta lamp. Made of recycled polyethylene, the lamp folds and contorts to create the optimum lighting for your mood. While open, the lamp’s light diffuses to fill a room and when folded shut, it can be concentrated for tasks and spotlighting. And the lamp comes flat-packed for fuel economy to boot!

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Postfossil’s Mechanical ‘First Light’ Reading Lamp

With a design which would easily fit in a 1970’s Stanley Kubrick film, Postfossil’s award winning First Light reading lamp is certainly cinematic. Powered entirely by a cog and wheel mechanism, the light remains lit once ‘wound’ by pulling the weighted cord. While the illumination relies on a relatively continuous input from the user, Postfossil’s Anna Blattert and Daniel Gafner have found a way to remind us of our energy consumption though the tried and tested method of action and reward.

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SCRAP LIGHTS Made from Twice Recycled Cardboard

Recently we introduced you to Seattle’s Graypants Inc. and their beautiful line of sustainable Scrap Chairs. In the process of fine-tuning their creations, Seth and Jonathan were captivated by the interplay of light and shadows across the corrugations of their cardboard chair and decided to recast its surplus material as a series of stunning Scrap Lights. We love the way these luminous lanterns cast rippling rivulets of light through their corrugated seams, and their twice-recycled construction strikes us as a shining example of sustainable design at its finest.

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