Si-Huis Installations
Studio
quality domestic lighting and furniture

Si-Huis
Crane Lamp, 2014. Carbon fiber, fiberglass, steel and polyester film
I was asked by my friend to
review and
edit his artwork,
a sizable collection of oil paintings and computer illustrations. I
guessed that it would
take a few days to go through it all. “I’ll do
it,” I said. “But... I’ll have to build
a suitable light view the artwork with, otherwise I’ll strain
my eyes.” I then designed and built a diffusing lightshade using foam
board and masking tape, which worked well. So well, that I developed
the
design, and I built one which used an industry standard can
lamp, with a tensegrity-type
structure made of hand polished and anodized
aluminum, steel cable, silk for the diffuser, industry standard color
gel
filters
and LED
bulb. It was designed to produce the ultimate quality light for a
either a studio or domestic environment, using focusing,
multiple layers of diffusion, and color
correction, with no glare from the lamp itself, from any angle. The
same friend that asked me to look through his artwork, said that it
looked like a bi-plane wing. Which it does, kinda.

Si-Huis
Crane Lamps, 2013. Carbon fiber, rubber and polyester film
No consideration was given
to the decorative
qualities of the lamp, though a strict adherence to function (and
quality) over form gives products a unique aesthetic all of their own.
All
of the aluminum for the lamps is aerospace-grade, anodized and hand
polished to a fine sheen by fabricators in Long Beach, California,
contractors to both the US military and space program. The ‘lampshades’
were
designed to be tools in the strictest sense of the word,
engineered to be efficient, and constructed to last. Silk, although
beautiful, was chosen
because it has a tensile strength greater than steel, for
its dimensional stability, and the weave of the silk is fine
enough so that light cannot pass through the individual fibers.

Si-Huis
Bi-Plane Lampshade, 2011. Aluminum, silk and steel
I then made
even more lamps, to ‘light’ the lamps I had just
made, so that I could photograph the lamps. A professional
photographer might tell you that an electronic flash is required in
the studio in order to freeze motion. Incandescent lights are not
bright enough to allow for brief-enough exposures and/or narrow
apertures, and in comparison to daylight or flash/strobe, the light is warm
colored.
Therefore, the lighting, which was used for lighting the lighting (for
photography purposes),
uses flash heads and not LED’s (though LED’s are capable of matching
the color of flash/strobe but not the brightness required for a quality
photograph). The photographs here were illuminated using our own custom
lampshades, along with Vivitar 285’s - the most popular professional
and enthusiast flash unit in
the world, which has remained in production for over thirty years
since
the launch of the original 283. Most
seasoned professionals have at least one or more of these old
workhorses in
their kit. They are both inexpensive and unassuming, but powerful
enough to get the job done, and reliable.

Si-Huis
Bi-Plane Lampshade, 2011. Aluminum, silk and steel
Daylight,
flash/strobe light, incandescent light and fluorescent light may all
appear to be
‘white’ light but, in fact, daylight (at midday) and
flash/strobe light are the only two white lights amongst them.
Fluorescent
lighting is actually green and incandescent lighting is orange. The
white part
of any photograph taken under these other lights will either be green
or
orange, but our minds perceive the ‘white-point’ as
white. Negative film processing adjusts for it. The subject of color
perception is called colorimetry and the natural
phenomenon of color cast compensation by the eyes is called a metamerism. Modern digital cameras correct for
this phenomenon;
it’s called, ‘white
balance’
Our eyes compensate for color as well as brightness, and every light
source has its own unique color, as well as brightness level. Just as
the brightness of light can affect our mood and experience, so can its
color. The difference may be subtle, but critical, especially over time.

Si-Huis
Bi-Plane Lamp, 2011, with Manfrotto stand. Si-Huis Sofa, 2009
Thomas Edison
developed the first electric lighting system over a hundred
years ago, using incandescent bulbs. These bulbs heat a metal
filament which is contained within a vacuum, or an inert gas, to
prevent
oxidation which would quickly break the filament. The color cast of the
resulting light is orange, like a sunset or a fire, but it is white
enough to
be able to view a broad spectrum of colors by its light. The light
comes from a
single source as it would a candle, which creates an unnaturally high
contrast
between the highlights and the shadows. To reduce the contrast and
soften the shadows, a lampshade can be used to diffuse the light.
Paper,
plastic, silk or glass are historically the most traditional
materials. The emitted
light refracts in different ways, and takes on the quality and color of the material that
it passes
through.

Si-Huis
Cannon Lampshade,
2011. Aluminum, steel, borosilicate glass
40%
of the western world’s energy is consumed by buildings for
heating, cooling and lighting. LED bulbs consume 10% as much energy
as a regular incandescent bulbs. They are more expensive
than incancesdents, but they will last 20 years without needing to be
replaced, and lighting bills wil be reduced by 90% for the life of the
bulb. Generating light
efficiently is part of the solution. Using the light efficiently is
another. If the generated light is focused and diffused correctly
(which also reduces glare and increases clarity), then more of the
light is being utilized and less is being wasted, much like the
insulating of a
house saves on heating and cooling bills, and fixing leaking pipes
saves water. Our latest lamps have been designed to utilize the most
advanced LED lightbulb on the market,
the 8.5W Philips Hue Bulb, available exclusively at Apple Stores, which
features unlimited options for light colors and is wifi controllable
using iPhone,
iPad or iPod.

Si-Huis
Cannon Lampshade,
2011. Aluminum, steel, borosilicate glass
This
new bulb maybe well be
the most significant change in
the lighting
industry since
Edison’s electric incandescent lightbulb (though very
sensibly on the part of Philips, the socket remains the same). Our
Si-Huis Crane Lamp (patent
pending), was designed for this new generation of bulbs; it is made of
feather-light carbon fiber and fiberglass composites, not much
wider than the lamp’s power cable, with rubber
counterweights for
combined safety, and an energy-returning, ultra-stable tripod stand.
The diffuser is made of polyester
single-ply membrane, similar to the material used for extremely high
altitude
balloons. Importantly, the lamp has been designed for mass-production,
and the time and cost of producing them is far less than our original
Bi-Plane floor lamp, yet it retains the function. Our first batch of
Crane Lamps (now Vera lamps) sold out completely and we have now sold
over 200 lampshades and lamp products all across America.
Michael Simon Toon
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