Many high-end lamps with thin elegant forms are made of metal. But a new lighting series from the London-based design studio Industrial Facility is composed of a bioplastic derived from castor oil. The lamp, called Pastille, is simple by design: just a hand-sized circle suspended from a single post. Even its insides contain only the bare essentials, with a single LED hidden inside the round disk. A mirror and plastic diffuser help that single LED do the work of a full array, while making the lamp more energy efficient. In fact, that same plastic diffuser is what inspired cofounder and partner at Industrial Facility Sam Hecht to wonder if the lamp’s cost could be even further reduced by making its body out of plastic, too. “The immediate reaction is: No one wants a plastic lamp,” he says. [Photo: Gilbert McCarragher/courtesy Industrial Facility] But later, Hecht and Industrial Facility partner Kim Colin, who were designing the lamp for the Swedish brand Wastberg , came across a material the company had used before–a bioplastic composed of 60% recyclable material from the castor bean plant and reinforced with glass fiber. It fit the lamp’s ultra-simple-but-elegant bill: The inclusion of the glass fiber […]
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