It seems impossible to find completely unadorned industrial design like this new (or even pseudo-industrial, since this lamp was probably made for the domestic market). It’s a vintage midcentury modern lamp from Furniture-Love.com via plastolux. It is here if you just need one, and can afford it. I need two matching lamps, is my problem, and for less than a kajillion dollars. These days the industrial style seems to have disappeared in lighting design and has been replaced by a style I call for lack of a better term “contempo.” That is, design that likes to see itself as contemporary, that pretends to be minimalist but isn’t really, that’s full of overcomplicated shapes, compound curves, weird finishes or brushy nickel, and that barely disguises its secret hankering to be jazzy. If anyone knows where I can two matching articulated wall lamps, white preferably or white and silver like this one, please advise.

Chandelier by Pae White. Once again from the lovely oasis known as You Have Been Here Sometime.

“Our lighting is hand-built in Japan from natural materials, including the hand-made paper (washi) of Eriko Horiki, the bent Japanese cedar of Toshiyuki Tani’s Wappa series, the coiled beech wood of the Bunaco Lacquer Ware Company, and the todomatsu pine slats of Takumi Kohgei. The lights are designed by Japanese architects and artisans who strive to create distinctive contemporary designs utilizing traditional materials and production techniques…Typically these lights provide ambient rather than functional lighting, creating that special mood or atmosphere which is best achieved through the use of soft natural materials.” These spectacular Japanese lamps are sold and distributed in North America by Vancouver company Kozai Designs.

Western European churches, especially those near or in shipping towns, often suspended a model ship from the ceiling as a symbol of good luck for sailors. The practice is probably most common in Denmark, but is fairly widespread. It would be surprising if the current craze for ship chandeliers in decor (see the ship chandeliers in houses at bottom) weren’t related to this tradition. For a whole set of photos of church ships, see here. Photo at top is in Vilnius, Lithuania; second is on the island of Seili, Finland. For photos below, click on photo for information.

Above, Canterbury Cathedral. Directly below (and at very top of post), a crystal ship in the Saints Peter & Paul’s Cathedral in Vilnius; photos by Beny Shlevich. Below that, two examples of the ship chandelier that’s become so popular now. It and others are contemporary, but there are antique versions of it too, usually from the early 1900s.

The two interior design photos above – both of them strangely aristocratic/colonial - are of a house by Jonathan Adler, top, and an apartment styled by designer Lili Diallo, below. The big ships are beautiful, even if there’s always plunder in their wake.

This midcentury modern house is for sale – or was – according to the Paul Rudolph Foundation website, which links to this great set of photos from ECOHUSET on Flickr.  See also the Rudolph Foundation’s blog for a post on this house. Architect Gene Leedy worked in Rudolph’s architecture firm, and along with a few others the two are largely responsible for the style known as Sarasota Modern.This house is a particularly pretty example of that style. The veneer plywood walls are beautiful and warm, but it’s the well-chosen paintings and objects that really make this place, especially that wavy wood-grain piece on the desk and all the small brutalist or neo-primitive sculptures. Putting the elliptical lamps on at floor level is a moment of genius too. Also the dog.

Also take a look at the book  Paul Rudolph: The Florida Houses

This fantastic new pendant lamp or chandelier is by our friends Propellor, an award winning collaboration of three Vancouver designers whose ridiculously beautiful studio is a few blocks from ours. The lamp was publicly launched today and while we have loved their Red Square chandelier for a long time, and would like to install it in our studio, we like this one just as much. Propellor also organizes Swell, an annual exhibition of sustainable design.