If you’ve ever been told you needed live plants in your home but just felt like you didn’t have the space, this may be the solution you need.

Designed by Toronto-based multidisciplinary design studio O/I (Object Interface Inc.), Babylon is a plantable light fixture inspired by the legends of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

The suspended light is made of powder coated aluminum with a removable ABS plastic liner. You can choose between the single light or a three light cluster. Pricing starts around $500.00

If you prefer a more enclosed option – especially if hanging over your kitchen table – this next light from Greenworks may be what you need. Also called Babylon, this light designed by Alexis Tricoire is a suspended terrarium of sorts.

The suspended light fixture is about 19.5″ wide with 5 openings for stems to grow through. The bottom of the globe is covered with pumice that contains minerals and micro nutrients that feed the plants. Due to the high water holding capacity of the pumice, plants need watering and maintenance only every third week.

I love this photo with the orchids. I will admit I’m not the best when it comes to keeping orchids but If I had this fixture, I’d try to improve my skills.

The last option I found for Green Lights is from the Bocci 38 Collection. This collection is an extension of the 28 series by Omer Arbel that features a series of distorted spheres filled with cavities that double as planters.

“This chandelier object, in production, uses a technique Mr. Arbel had previously used to create 28. It takes an hour for three people to make one; 10% to 15% of them break in the process, says Mr. Arbel. This piece, 38, has cavities deep enough to contain earth and succulent and cacti plantings.”

Within the spheres there are 4-6 cavities, 2 or 3 of which house either a 10 watt xenon or a 1.5 watt LED light source. Electricity and suspension are achieved with stiff copper tubing, which is allowed to tangle and skew, seemingly without regard for gravity.

Due to the hand crafted nature of the 38 series, the pendant size as well as the number and location of interior satellites, pendant diameter, and sometimes shape may vary.

Based in Vancouver with a satellite company in Berlin, Bocci is a contemporary design and manufacturing house that follows sustainable practices. Bocci’s 38 Collection is made from recycled glass, lit by energy-efficient LED lights, and shipped in recyclable packaging.

DAY 2: Brompton Design District, 100% Design

We began day two at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), now in it’s 5th year as the London Design Festival’s central hub.

Our guides whisked us through the various exhibits hardly giving us much time to stop and take in the exhibits much less capture a good photograph.

In partnership with Swarovski, the London Design Festival commissioned 14 designers to each find a tiny detail within the V&A and highlight it using a Swarovski lens. The project, entitled God is in the Details, takes the famous phrase coined by legendary German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe as a starting point to encourage the visitor to discover design features that may have otherwise been overlooked.

Canadian Designer Omer Arbel created the 28.280 installation, suspending 280 individual Bocci 28 series handblown glass lights from the museum’s cupola to create a giant chandelier. The installation plunges almost 100 feet from the ceiling and through a hole in the floor before emerging in the atrium of the gallery.

“28 Series is an exploration of a fabrication process which is part of our quest for specificity.
Instead of designing form itself, here the intent was to design a system that haphazardly
yields form, almost as a byproduct. ‘28’ pendants result from a complex glass blowing
technique whereby air pressure is intermittently introduced into and then removed from a
glass matrix which is intermittently heated and then rapidly cooled.

The result is a distorted spherical shape with a composed collection of inner shapes, one of
which is made of opaque milk glass and houses a light source.”

Other notable exhibits included V&A Designer in residence Julia Lohmann‘s installation of a huge sculpture made of seaweed, a white noise voice remixer created by Yuri Suzuki, a walk-through exhibit of 5,000 paper windmills created by Najla El Zein called The Wind Portal and The Dinner Party still life set up by Scholten and Baijings where visitors look upon a dinner scene and hear music playing softly in the background created by the objects before them by composers Moritz Gabe and Henning Grambow.

Perhaps the most breathtaking exhibit at the V&A is the Pearls exhibit running through January 19th in collaboration with the Qatar Museums Authority.

This lavish display explores the history of pearls from the early Roman Empire through to the present day and showcases some of the most exquisite pearl jewelery including the famous Mikimoto pearl necklace worn by Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor’s Bulgari pearl-drop pendant earrings.

To be Continued…Brompton Design District on BlogTourLondon

Tag: Bocci

Green Light

London Design Festival – Day 2