We often forget about our neighbor to the north, but Canada has produced some excellent designers and design teams. One such firm is Molo Design, the Vancouver-based collaborative studio. Led by Stephanie Forsythe, Todd MacAllen, and Robert Pasut, Molo is best known for their creative work using paper, such as Softseating and Softwall, made of kraft paper and tyvek respectively.

Cloud Softlight. Designed by Molo Design.

We at 3rings are intimate with Softseating, as we used it in the Designer Pages (our parent company) booth at NeoCon Chicago 2009. The dense use of paper makes a strong construction material–and it’s even more interesting when it’s lit up by LED lights, something Molo Design first did with their Softwall and Softblock. When illuminated from inside, these pieces become ethereal.

Besides the Urchin Softlight, a lamp shaped like the globular underwater animal, Molo has developed a ceiling-mounted lighting system that creates “a luminous, undulating canopy overhead.” Recently hung at the Molo Design booth at furniture shows like Maison & Objet and ICFF, Cloud Softlights are “hollow cloud forms” lit by LED lights. The serpentine, floating forms mimic moving cloud formations. “Hung in clusters,” Cloud Softlights can be “tailored to the individual space they are shaping.” And, because they emit a transcendent glow, the LED lights become “three dimensional sculptural forms mysteriously radiant from any direction.” Just take a look at the nighttime photographs of the Cloud Softlight installation at Molo Design’s workshop. The sinuous shapes become everything from snakes to skyscapes. Coupled with Softseating, Cloud Softlight creates a fantastic and uncanny space, where materials we normally associate with transience become everlasting.