Wästberg

Creating modern fires

Why do certain types of light make us feel better than others? In our 2008 manifesto Lamps for Neanderthal Man, we pointed out man’s primitive relationship with light in the form of fire. For more than a million years, fire was our only source of artificial light. It frightened wild animals, brought us together, kept us warm, and made us feel safe. Above all, it was a source of light that we could keep close by, that we could control.

Electric light has been around for a little over a century, a blink of an eye compared to human evolution. Today, we find ourselves trying to tame our primitive needs to meet the demands of a modern high-tech world, where light has become more or less a world of electronics. In our overly lit spaces, created under the misconception that more light equals greater productivity, we feel exposed, small, with nowhere to go.

We believe in creating modern fires.

Light should shine for us, not on us.