Italian lighting company Foscarini has recently introduced a new pendant light, the Planet Lamp, designed by Italian design studio Changedesign. Planet is a spherical textile lamp inspired by a study commissioned by NASA (carried out by Dainese in partnership with MIT) on high performance “intelligent” clothing worn by astronauts.

Stitching applied to the surface of a spacesuit material made it adhere to the body, stopping it from expanding in the absence of gravity, yet was flexible for body movement.  A similar idea involving thread treated at high temperature was developed by Foscarini in collaboration with Changedesign to develop the form of Planet so that it hardens into an exoskeleton to support the lamp’s shape.

The light is available in two sizes: white with red thread detailing or white on white.