Rocklumìna
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
Category
Project Description
Rocklumina combines the functions of lamp and diffuser and improves an existing object that does not have sustainability criteria: the rock salt lamps. Completely made in Italy using only pure Italian rock salt crystals colored with natural pigments using solar energy, this lamp has been invented to create a new concept of this product typology: endless life, rechargeable rock salt, high energy efficiency, no harmful substances, interlocking connections, ethical and traceable production cycle.
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
The Rocklumìna table lamp (where the name "rock" hints at the rock salt and "lumi" is the Italian referring to non-electrical lights) was designed to improve the appearance and functionality of an object which, to date, has no sustainability and ethical criteria: rock salt lamps, imported products from an untracked market with non-certified production origin.
Rocklumìna innovates the use of rock salt, of Italian origin, inside a glass lamp produced in historic Italian laboratories. Using only pure Italian rock salt crystals (99.4 NaCl) and colored with natural pigments (through the use of solar energy), this lamp creates a new concept of salt lamps, with sustainable and ethical production and infinite life.
The rock salt crystals, available in eight colors, are housed inside a double-walled glass body, are rechargeable and the energy-efficient internal bulb (2 or 4W LED A ++) is protected by a second glass body, which guarantees its maximum duration over time.
Through a natural cycle triggered by the rock salt itself and implemented by other natural materials of the internal components of the lamp, Rocklumìna interacts with the water vapor present in the indoor air. Its use also involves the diffusion of essential oils through the crystals, using the heat of the lamp to give off fragrances. This function can be activated at will by the user by pouring a few drops of essence on the top of the lamp.
Key objectives for sustainability
Rocklumìna was born from the desire to offer a highly energy-efficient rock salt lamp with infinite duration, in contrast to the market offer of the same product which today concerns unethical production, uncertified origins of the raw material, and long-distance transport. These production limits are combined with characteristics of poor functionality of the final object, with a short life of the internal bulb (with low efficiency), and the risk of absorption and uncontrolled release of moisture on the base of the lamp.
By designing an innovative rock salt lamp it was therefore decided to exploit a natural Italian and indigenous material, work it with the help of solar energy, give it different colors with pigments extracted from plants and insert it in a glass body, handcrafted with the same precision characteristics of an industrial product.
The final result includes a double-walled glass lamp - for the conservation of the heat emitted by the high-efficiency bulb -, a second internal glass body, which protects the bulb from any moisture collected by the salt and absorbed by a second material, internal, always of natural origin. Furthermore, one of the main characteristics of a sustainable object was thought of durability.
To satisfy the preferences of multiple users and ensure that Rocklumìna can be transmitted from father to son over the years, the crystals are available in eight colors, and refilling and replacing them is very simple as well as very fast.
For the production of these lamps, only materials of natural origin and interlocking connections are used that do not include glues and substances harmful to man and the environment and make the components always replaceable and separable at the end of their life.
The production and packaging cycle connects three cities within the same country and is developed in such a way as to allow both the economic sustainability of the production by the designer and a reduction in travel in terms of transport used.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
The natural characteristic of the salt to absorb moisture, combined with the craftsmanship of its crystals to make them perfectly transparent, allows you an unprecedented visual experience.
Rocklumìna diffuses a soft light but with a high color rendering index (CRI) through the crystals, accentuating the eventual coloring, going beyond the transparent borosilicate glass body. Every detail, such as the accessories, the wiring, and the switch, pursue the same purpose of visual lightness. These aesthetic characteristics make Rocklumìna not only the first sustainable rock salt lamp but also the only one capable of offering the benefits of a salt lamp, accentuating the elegance of the interiors, adapting to any type of style, and going beyond momentary trends.
Key objectives for inclusion
Each step in the design of Rocklumìna was aimed at ease of use, visual simplicity, and the use of the fewest possible elements and materials.
Precisely these characteristics make the project and its operation simple for most users.
Rocklumìna was designed as an object capable of silent interactions with its user. Already from the first prototype, it was seen how the soft but strong light emanating from the crystals could be useful as a well-being tool for mood. In fact, taking a cue from the techniques for treating patients through artificial light (Light Therapy in psychology), the aim was to recreate within the project space the same effect present in the salt mines, in which non-dazzling reflections envelop the eyes of visitors, arousing an almost hypnotic feeling of relaxation.
This first sensation that works mainly through sight is accompanied by two others: one affects the sense of smell, the other touch.
Rocklumìna can in fact also be understood as a diffuser of olfactory notes obtained through essential oils (which can be poured on the upper part, above the crystals) and thanks to its particular structure, which creates a level of heat insulation, it also attracts the touch with which you can feel the heating of the crystals inside the lamp. This last feature was noted for a long time during the testing and prototyping phases when the lamp was entrusted for a few days to volunteers to test it.
Working on multiple senses, each of these characteristics makes Rocklumìna appreciated by people with skills and sensitivities that are also very different from each other.
Results in relation to category
Rocklumìna has proved to be the answer for those users who love to benefit from the visual and practical effects of a salt lamp but do not want to give up maintaining visual balance and elegance in their own home, buying an object with a clear production path and the significant possibility of customization in use.
In 2020 Rocklumìna won the Green Product Award for the sustainable aspects of the project and for its execution, receiving full recognition from the jury for research aimed at improving an existing object and for creating a unique design. Rocklumìna is a patented design.
How Citizens benefit
Three companies participate in the mass production of the Rocklumina lamps that design a circular path through the Italian territory, from the Italian islands to the traditional glass laboratories of northern Italy, passing through the region where the design studio is located and where they are examined and colored the crystals, near the Adriatic coast.
Each artisan laboratory is required to take care of the packaging with which the material is sent to the main office - where the assembly and electrical wiring takes place - so that the packaging can also be reused in the final packaging of the product (after sanitation). Still, to lighten the impact of packaging on the ecological footprint of the product, the design studio has developed a micro-chain that connects his laboratory with some offices in the area for the reuse of paper in sheets. This is reduced into strips and used to fill the so-called "paper pillows", which is the filling material for each package containing fragile objects, avoiding the use of virgin material.
From an idea of the designer, elderly people were involved in sorting the crystals by hand, considering the ability of salt to create benefit to hands in which arthrosis problems are present.
The production of Rocklumìna lamps involves small amounts of stock, within the quantities useful for reducing the environmental costs of transport and at the same time be economically available for the rising design studio, which currently lacks the resources available to large companies.
Innovative character
A completely new design and concept paved the way for the patent of the Rocklumìna model, precisely about its characteristics of both visual and functional originality. The internal components of the lamp, in particular, are designed to avoid joins with glues, welds, or toxic substances and to ensure that each element can be replaced and connected to the others in a simple, interlocking way, directly from the user himself.
Rocklumìna is the first Italian rock salt lamp and the first lamp of this type entirely created with a single glass body, whose shape allows the eternal life of the lamp, in which the salt never ends - as it is rechargeable - and the crystals prove to be particularly long-lasting as it is extremely pure (99.4% NaCl) and in fact transparent, unlike any other salt lamp on the market, in which salt is only part of the many components (including any heavy metals), which give colors and opacity to the rock salt.
Rocklumìna is also, for this reason, the first rock salt lamp that can be customized by the user in 8 different colors of natural and vegan origin of crystals and in 3 different color temperatures with different influence on the mood and well-being of those who use them, following the principles by Max Lüscher and psycho-somatic color therapy.
