The Willowlamps...

I just love their work...the Willowlamp series by Sian Eliot and Adam Hoets which come with this mystical aura that I can't resist. These would definitely add elegance to your place!

Faraway Trees Chandeliers.

A graphic 'tree' inspired chandelier design. The ballchain curtains follow the contour of the trees canopy. The weight of the chain causes the branches to droop gently as if mimicking heavy foliage. The idea was inspired from two dimensional tree shapes found on architectural drawings.The lamp uses a uplighter to illuminate the trees canopy without the light source being visible.

Fuschia chandelier with a magenta heart and trailing.

Fuschia chandelier in brass.

Large chandelier inspired by the Fuschia flower form - an inverted red & magenta star with a spray of G4 low voltage lamps spiralling down from the main body of the flower, like stamens.

Rose 'LED' chandelier.

A highly energy efficient disk shaped chandelier with an extruded rose form. It uses 36 replaceable LED lighting chips and uses 17W in total. The chips are concealed via magnetic plates.

Do check out the rest from
a+.   willowlamp
a+.   architonic
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"What it is, it isn't."...

Photos by Lisa Klappe.

What capture me the most is the title of this project: " What it is, it isn't." beside the image of awkward looking cabinet, of course. Then, I realized the text was taken from 'Alice in Wonderland', which is written by Lewis Carroll and this project by Ontwerpduo get its inspiration from it.

What it is, it isn't.
'If I had a world of my own,
everything would be nonsense.
Nothing would be what it is,
because everything would be what it isn't.
And, contrariwise, what it is, it wouldn't be.
And what it wouldn't be, it would.
You see?'
- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland.

To describe the work better, these are exact text from Ontwerpduo:
'Objects are how we perceive them to be. Our minds make things what they are and for us this is reality. Think of a branch hanging in the water. We see, with the refraction of light, the branch under the waterline in a different angle. But we know that in reality the shape of this branch is different. We learned how to see the world.

What if there was an instrument which would change the world into something that we find strange? And better, what if this instrument can also change it back?

Does the world really look how we think it is, or does the world look like we want it to be? This question can be asked by looking at this project, with or without this particular instrument.

I worked with the refraction of light as a basic principal for a new form language. I designed a different world, a strange world. In this new world there still is a possibility to go back to the world we know.

'Showing the world for what it isn't, or is it?'

With the instrument it is possible to reshape objects, spaces and architecture.'

Photos by Lisa Klappe.

Photos by Lisa Klappe.

(Click for a clearer view).

Project details:
date:                       06.2008
commissioned by: Ontwerpduo
type:                      limited edition
material:               wood, pewter, polyurethane
dimensions:          instrument 140 x 70 x 70 cm, cupboard 200 x 95 x 50 cm
photo's:                 product, scale model, sketch from lens and product trough lens

a+.  ontwerpduo  
a+.  lisa klappe   via   ricarch
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d°light Huggable by Diana Lin Design

d°light Huggable.

Made from American standard food-safe silicone, d°light Huggable designed by Diana Lin Design, an innovative combination of ambient lighting and cushion would certainly lighten up your living room!

A furry pillow cover wrapped around a series of 12 LED lights embedded within silicone bubbles where it acts as a diffuser for the LED lights. When the warm-white LED lamps lit up, the technology creates a warm and comforting glow through the natural color of the silicone translucent white which represents sunlight.

'The tactile quality of the silicone also mimics the feeling of a living creature, and d°light Huggable almost hugs back as you hold it. Its qualities also absorb body heat, causing it to be warm to the touch. The shape and material of the pillow cover encourages people to touch, hold and bond with d°light Huggable.'
With 4 x 2500 mah AA batteries, d°light Huggable will stay lit continuously for up to 4 hours before slowly dims down.

'The inspiration for the d°light design is sunlight. The comforting rays of the sun not only represent warmth and light but also happiness, joy, playfulness, and life itself. People often take these qualities for granted, however, missing the sunlight only when it is unavailable. The concept embodied in the d°light Huggable is to create a light that captures the essence of sunlight, condensed into something tactile and personal.'
- Diana Lin Design.

d°light Huggable.

Silicone LED Bubbles.

On/ Off Pull Switch.

Do check out other d°light's products too!

a+.  diana lin design
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The Curtain Door in the House with Wall of Light

Matharoo Associates won the Architectural Review’s Emerging Architecture Awards (sponsored by Ramboll and Austin-Smith:Lord) that celebrates the best pieces of design by young architects from across the world by just submitting a DOOR DESIGN despite, the accompanying 1700m² showpiece House with Wall of Light features a number of similarly inventive components, including a light-emitting onyx wall, which also caught the judges attention.

'The DOOR, to a diamond merchant's residence in Surat, India is at 5.2m high and 1.7m wide. The door comprised of 40 sections of thick 254mm Burma teak where each section is carved so that the door integrates 160 pulleys, 80 ball bearings, a wire-rope and a counter weight hidden within the single pivot.

Stacked one above the other in the closed position, each plank can then rotate by a simple push causing the door to reconfigure into a sinusoidal curve.'

- The Architectural Review.

The house:

'Designed for Mr. Dilip Sanghvi, the House with Wall of Light, sitting between an anonymous plot and the house for Parag Shah (house with warped court), the complex geometry of the site is used as a cue to develop its spaces such that all areas of the house open out onto a tranquil and private green space.

On entering the site, one encounters a ramp down to the parking level and the blank concrete walls, the green of the lawn near the entrance enfolding a few seconds after. 

The house can be entered from two sides, both through large, custom designed entrance doorways that transform into a wooden curtain and gently open into the entrance hallways. The two separate entrance hallways allow the smaller home and the larger house to coexist; one opening into the family spaces and the other leading directly into the formal drawing and dining space and veranda outside. The high formal living space in concrete can also be distinguished by the skewed box, representing the industry. The double height entrance hallway also serves as a meeting place for the household and a connecting space between the formal and informal. At one end of the passage, and accessible to all, is the family prayer room and the study above, giving religion and intellect its fair place in the house, respecting their everyday importance in the home. 


The dwelling emulates the various facets of the jewel in several ways through the use of contrasting materials. The rough diamonds are represented by the concrete walls poured in stone casts and the polished ones are represented by the light emanating onyx wall. One is opaque, the other transparent. One envelops the house and the other ties the house together. One absorbs, the other radiates, one is neutral, the other colourful, one is rough and the other is smooth, diametrical opposites in the same house. The core family and private areas are placed in a “black box” characterized by the use of kadapa stone representing carbon, another avatar of the diamond. The base flooring in economical and common but robust kota stone as if representing continuity, and all this is set against the chic neutrality of travertine representing contemporary living. 

The industry dwells in between the incoming rough and the outgoing polished stone in all its entirety; static, dark and unyielding spaces placed amidst sunlit areas- dynamic, light and agile.
The three identical staircases are aligned to the three site angles converging near the entrance; one is placed on the floor, second on the wall and the third on the ceiling; signifying the illusionary world of diamonds.'

-Matharoo Associates.

(Click for clearer view.)

a+.  matharoo associates   via
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Personal Space by Tithi Kutchamuch

Hehe...admit it! cute huh? Nominated, New Traditional Jewellery 2008, Sieraad Art Fair and designed by London-based designer Tithi Kutchamuch, Personal Space can be descibed as an emotional based design when you try to understand the diagram above...

'I often get a knock from the flat below.

The inner side of the ring rubs against my bare skin, my personal space. It’s not always comfortable when someone try to get intimate.'
- Tithi Kutchamuch.

a+.  tithi kutchamuch   via
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