Green design is evolving from its roots in sustainable living and greener technologies. Revolving around innovative solutions, a radical change in the design world is ongoing, and probably there will never be a going back.
But to understand why this new field was born, we need to jump on a time machine and first explore the roots of the evolution of the lamp and the history of lighting.
From ancient times to the modern era
The history of lamps is a fascinating one. Not only, from the days of the Roman Empire and Greek Colonies, through to the modern day, lamps play a vital role in lighting our homes, but also, their history is a collection of stories about how we were able to create one of the greatest inventions of human history in the first place.
Everything began in the 70000 BCE. The primitive people were the first ones to create what we may consider the earliest lamp. It was mainly made for survival purposes. It was hollowed out rock or shell filled with an absorbent combustible material (such as moss) soaked in animal fat that could be ignited.
Later, the natural vessels were replaced by pottery and metals, as recorded by some archaeological findings from Ancient Egypt and China. Called “saucer lamps”, they were differentiated from the first primitive prototypes because of a spike added at the center of the cavity to support the wick and regulate its burning rate.
The very first lamp, as we intend it, was created in Ancient Greece in the 7th century BCE. Not coincidentally, the word “lamp” originates from “lampas,” which were what we know as the ancient Greek torches.
When the Greek power fell and Rome ascended, lamps began to be mainly made with terra-cotta and more complex shapes.
Since then, lamps didn’t evolve much until the 18th century, when it was discovered that the air of a glass chimney could regulate flames.
The new modern version of lamps had a central burner, emerging from a closed metal tube, whose flames could be controllable by an external ratchet. From that moment on, lights began to be known according to their primary fuel, such as “whale oil lamp” or “kerosene lamp,” and mainly used for street lighting.
The revolution of the incandescent light bulb
In the 19th century, Thomas Alva Edison created the first example of an electric light bulb, whose filaments gave off a more suffused and whiter light when heated by an electric current than the carbon arc lamps known for their intensity of the light.
Though Thomas Edison’s wish was to implement light in everyone’s daily lives, even at home, the commercial success of the incandescent lamp for domestic purposes did not arrive until the 1930s. Only a few could afford a source of electric light at home, so the lighting schemes were minimal, and, except for the ones of the riches, the lamp design was simple and plain.
The recent research on more sophisticated lighting schemes is connected with the 1950s economic boom in Europe and the United States. At that time, the spread of financial wealth and the significant possibility for the reborn countries to buy more consumer goods encouraged the market and the interior design world too.
New types of lamps were born with different shapes and functions, and people began to combine all of them in a single space. However, their massive production brought us today to have a severe problem we cannot postpone anymore: lighting pollution.
The newborn frontier of sustainable interior lighting brings new innovative projects
Nowadays, we have come to the idea too much artificial light is granted to everyone, but it is not. Light, in general, is a precious resource that many on this planet do not have, and, plus, too much of it may drastically pollute the environment.
That is why interior designers are working on more thoughtful projects that can raise a new kind of awareness among the customers, such as Anima Soul Light.
Anima Soul Light is a light company that connects Italian design and Balinese millennial history of embroidery and craftsmanship. Its products focus on sustainability using eco-friendly and long-lasting material, plus a handcrafted production that values more what the lamp symbolizes than its mere existence on the market.