Design

Motion-Activated Shrooms Light Up Only When People Are Nearby

Lighting that still lets you see the stars.
Oddleif Apneset

Rare is the American city-dweller who thinks, "This park that I'm walking through in the middle of the night is too well-lit."

But that's exactly what Birgitta Ralston and Alexandre Bau, a couple of Norway-based designers, thought when they worked with residents of a Nordic village during the long, dark Scandinavian winter. "The amazing light of stars and aurora borealis (Nordic lights) are affected by public lighting," Ralston & Bau said in a press release, "Therefore it made sense to make light fixtures that are fully lit only when needed."