Art meets science and environmental activism to inspire Artemide’s latest product, Criosfera.
Earth’s frozen system – the cryosphere – is primarily found in Antarctica. Ice formed as far back as 800,000 years ago contains vital information that can help us understand how conditions on our planet have changed over time and the resulting impacts. Analysing ‘ice cores’ – vertical shafts of ice taken from the cryosphere – scientists can explore the links between changes in the climatic atmosphere, global warming and rising sea levels, helping to motivate remedial action and inform environmental policy that will protect habitats for all the living creatures of our planet.
Inspired by these repositories of our climatic history and wanting to celebrate their role in signalling the importance and urgency of decarbonisation, designer Guilia Foscari chose to design Criosfera based on an ice core. Featuring a cylindrical structure with layered blown, recycled glass, a riveted optic core and a concealed inner core of LED lights, Criosfera emulates the stunning optical qualities of these cores that are taken from depths of our planet’s ice sheets.
Engravings are impressed into the hot glass before blowing, making the surface thickness of the glass wavy and irregular, and generating bubbles that appear like compressed ancient air. The concealed LEDs are spaced such that when the light is refracted and diffused through the layers, it gently evokes the stratification of the polar ice, with a scattering effect that recalls natural sunlight striking ice crystals.
Independent mounting devices combine with the Criosfera ‘core’ to create floor, horizontal and vertical options. The design of these devices is informed by the scientific equipment used to extract and analyse the ice cores, with engraved markers that indicate CO2 levels over time. The figures from post-industrial times are engraved in orange, reflecting and highlighting the anthropogenic change that has contributed to the current climate crisis and state of planetary instability and inequality.
Criosfera is available in overall dimensions of 132mm, 536mm, or 1600mm.
