Comments on: “BLOOMING” PROTEA LAMP

By: angie

angie — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 18:25:09 +0000

Everyone who is suspicious of “overlapping” design ideas should read The Tipping Point. Sometimes people copy each other, and sometimes it’s just the “right time” for a certain idea to make sense.

By: dug

dug — Wed, 31 May 2006 17:06:41 +0000

please use energy efficient cf or led bulbs and make this play on inefficient lighting obsolete.

By: karl zahn

karl zahn — Wed, 31 May 2006 02:13:28 +0000

hello there

a friend told me i was posted on your site and id love to comment.

as far as the “kudos” i dont think trying to figure out who was first is necessary. the material is some 60 years old and i am positive someone thought to make a light out of it by now. though it is difficult to find and somewhat cost prohibitive. but i feel that in todays more environmentally concious society – these kinds of products may find a larger audience. it appears as though Nendo and I had the same idea at about the same time – though i have been working with this off and on since 2003. and while the Static flower lamp is beautiful, im not sure it even works (ive only seen a conceptual model). my intentions were to explore the material and the very first, most obvious solution was to form a simple flower around the bulb. This is not perhaps the most practical lamp, but for me it was a step in a direction i am trying to get more people interested in.

the response has been great and i hope to have the next prototypes ready to show soon on the website
http://www.oboiler.com

thanks again for the posting

By: greg b

greg b — Tue, 30 May 2006 18:18:32 +0000

The earliest reference I’m aware of is 1949 by J. Muir

See http://www.freepatentsonline.com/image-2561217-1.html

and more recently

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6966812.html

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 30 May 2006 15:01:46 +0000

Hi,

Let me throw in another *similar* design.
http://www.tii.se/static/flower.htm

In situations like these, I’d really like to know who deserves the kudos for the original idea and who, well, doesn’t.

The internet. A million eyes, one mind. Nothing will go undetected…

By: Takumi

Takumi — Tue, 30 May 2006 11:21:12 +0000

Hi there.

I thought I’d mention another lamp, pretty much identical to Protea Lamp, by nendo called “hanabi”.
http://www.nendo.jp/en/works/detail.php?y=2006&t=71

It seems to me that this kind of unique and great idea is less likely to be coneived at the same time, or am I being too suspicious?!

Anyway, thank you for the great posts everytime.

By: Wendy

Wendy — Tue, 30 May 2006 06:14:57 +0000

While I applaud Zahn for aiming to remind people that lightbulbs lose a lot of energy as heat, it seems as if the interaction here is at odds with the message. It is almost as if you’re rewarded (with a prettier lamp) for turning on the light, for using a hotter bulb as opposed to a cooler, more efficient one. If the reward occurred when you turned off the light or reduced your energy usage, that would make the lamp just about perfect.

The Static! project at the Interactive Institute has a “Flower lamp” (http://www.tii.se/static/flower.htm) that is quite similar but seems to work the opposite way, where you make the flower open up and be more beautiful by decreasing your energy usage.

But I guess the Protea is much more functional than Static’s effort — unless everyone is happy to view their blooming flower lamp in the dark!