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Lighting designers reach for the stars


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Throughout the Middle Ages, churches, chapels and cathedrals were erected across Europe, their vaulted ceilings covered in cobalt and intricately decorated with individual golden stars – heaven on earth. The need to bring the night sky inward persists today, from artist Richard Wright’s 47,000 minimalist stars that adorn the city of Amsterdam. Rijksmuseum to the London show recent HTSI Aesthete and novelist Andrew O’Haganwhich recreates the starry ceiling of a Tuscan basilica. Meanwhile, children’s rooms become more magical when illuminated with galaxy projectors or glow-in-the-dark sticker constellations. Now, however, it is the world of adult design that turns to all things astronomical.

Davide Groppi Moon 120 floor lamp, €3,835
Davide Groppi Moon 120 floor lamp, €3,835 © Isabella Ostelli

Studio based in Texas and Philadelphia Muhly has created a range of perforated tin lights titled Lin in honor of Maya Lin’s 2001 artwork. Ecliptic – 146 fiber optic lights placed in concrete, recreating the night sky of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Instead of the expected Texas stars or equestrian designs, small perforations are found randomly scattered across Muhly’s table lamps, pendants and sconces (from $975). “With the angle of the shade, it projects far and wide,” co-founder Ann Edgerton says of the table lamp. She has installed the wall-mounted version in her husband’s reading corner: “it sends a soft light downward, but above it are the stars.” Currently available in galvanized steel or unlacquered brass, the collection will launch in a verdigris finish this year.

Alice Palmer Hundi Lantern in Bottle Green, £395
Alice Palmer Hundi Lantern in Bottle Green, £395

Alicia Palmer has incorporated subtle stars into its new Hundi lanterns (£395). Made from amber, red or bottle green glass, the fixtures are reminiscent of turn-of-the-century bell lamps, while “the star etched into the glass adds depth with a bit of timeless detail,” says Palmer. “Lanterns are a great way to add a pop of color to a space while creating soft ambient lighting.”

Luke Jerram's Moon Museum installed in Liverpool Anglican Cathedral
Luke Jerram’s Moon Museum installed in Liverpool Anglican Cathedral © Gareth Jones
Relative distance phase lamp, POA
Relative distance phase lamp, POA © Jason Ell/interiors by Elizabeth Franks Studio

The elusive moon also fascinates. So much so that artist lucas jerram‘s Moon Museum The sculpture (seven meters in diameter) has attracted more than 20 million visitors around the world, who watch the illuminated sphere as it floats through gardens, museums and cathedrals (it has just arrived in St Albans). In the last year London Design FestivalRelative Distance debuted Phase (POA), a limited-edition work of art whose waxing and waning is perfectly synchronized with the moon’s orbit in real time. “It’s something you live with, that changes slowly over time on a calendar scale,” says co-founder Roland Ellis, who built on Calm Technology’s concept to make the test as unobtrusive as possible. Eight thousand LEDs are carefully designed to emulate the moon’s natural light and total darkness, while a high-resolution composite image from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter 2010 reveals the smallest details of the lunar surface. “It’s something people know and can know again,” says co-founder Dev Joshi.

Moon wall light by Garcé & Dimofski, from €1,420
Moon wall light by Garcé & Dimofski, from €1,420 © Luis Nobre Guedes

Others take a more impressionistic approach. Davide GroppiThe Moon 120 floor lamp (€3,835) is textured with Japanese washi paper, while the one by Garcé & Dimofski moon applique (from £1,420) is hand-cast in clay by Portuguese artisans. Ludovic Clément d’Armont is a self-proclaimed Semeur d’Étoiles (“star sower”) who creates moons and planets in blown glass. “I looked at Hubble and other astronomical images and spent a year experimenting with how I could produce balloons that evoked those images,” he says. “It took a few hundred tries before we selected the best one.” The closely guarded process requires two people and involves adding crushed marble to molten glass while blowing. The resulting lamps are suspended alone (from $1,100) or in cascading chandeliers (from $21,000), while the irregular “Météore” table lamps (from $2,900) sit atop space-age-style tripods.

Semeur d'Étoiles Planètes chandelier, from $21,000
Semeur d’Étoiles Planètes chandelier, from $21,000 © Ludovic Clément d’Armont
Alchemie Lamp by Catellani & Smith, £3,240
Alchemie Lamp by Catellani & Smith, £3,240 © Nava Rapacchietta

Castellani & Smith makes a range of celestial-inspired creations, including Bellatrix (£2,860), a golden homage to one of Orion’s brightest stars, and the alchemy lamp (£3,240), which recreates a solar eclipse. It consists of a brass disc that can be rolled along a limestone base to conceal another shiny alabaster disc. Anna Karlin also depicts the moon in a fleeting moment: her acrylic Luna Light (from $14,000) is hand-painted to achieve the once-a-year pink hue created by what’s known as Rayleigh scattering.

Anna Karlin Luna Lamp, from $14,000
Anna Karlin Luna Lamp, from $14,000 © Chris Blanco
Blue Skies Lamp by Michael Anastassiades, £1,470
Blue Skies Lamp by Michael Anastassiades, £1,470

As the painters of New York’s Grand Central Station would surely attest, astronomical precision has no bearing on beauty (in 1913, a traveler noted that his reproduction of the Uranometria star map was entirely backwards). for his blue skies lamp (£1,470), Michael Anastassiades draws on an extinct theory of lunar phases, sometimes attributed to Aristotle, which posits a flat moon, white on one side and black on the other. Anastassiades’ version uses tosa washi paper and hinoki wood for its “moon,” which reflects the beam of light from a polished nickel-plated brass base.

“The moon is very far away, isolated by the atmosphere, buildings or your life,” says Relative Distance’s Joshi. Simulating the night sky may no longer be a religious pursuit, but a cure for nature-deprived city dwellers. Or maybe it’s just the latest way to create cozy interiors with sexy, diffuse lighting. Either one is fine.

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