Hot ice

Criosfera reveals millennia of climate history.

A glittering cylinder of ice. The layered, blown and recycled glass resembles a core of ice drilled from the Antarctic. Hence its name: Criosfera, the cryosphere, unites all the frozen landscapes on the planet. 90 percent of the cryosphere is found in the Antarctic. Its glaciers store over two thirds of our freshwater reserves and also form a huge climate archive. Both facts inspired the architect, designer and curator Giulia Foscari to create a truly exceptional lamp: Criosfera demonstrates the fragile beauty of ice and its uncertain future.

For climate researchers, the Antarctic serves as a gigantic data store. A huge time machine made of layers of ice. With every centimetre, they delve deeper into the history of the earth and its climate. Trapped in tiny air bubbles, the various CO2 concentrations of past millennia can be determined. These have now reached a historic high of 422ppm (parts per million). This figure appears as a warning in the lamp’s aluminium base. Its “ice”, featuring extremely fine bubbles made from handcrafted recycled glass, has the characteristic appearance of an ice core, as studied by scientists to determine indirectly the extent of man-made global warming.

Inspired by the refraction of light on the surface of the ice on the Antarctic plateau, the external case of the lamp diffuses the light emanating from the hidden LED core. A magical lamp that creates a calm, pleasant atmosphere and which can also be dimmed.

Criosfera demonstrates our responsibility to the planet. Its creator, Giulia Foscari, works with the architectural studio UNA on cultural building projects and is actively involved with the charitable institution UNLESS. Her initiative, Antarctic Resolution, a unique documentation of the Antarctic continent, calls for us to protect our world.

The Criosfera lamp family thus offers more than just magical light. It is also a call to action. Criosfera is available as 160 cm high floor lamps, 56 cm high table lamps and a horizontal version. The tripod construction resembles the instruments used to extract and analyse the ice cores while the cable is a vibrant neon orange, a signal colour that is highly visible in the ice.