Search the web for info. pertaining to the Italian lighting manufacture known as Punto, and you’ll likely return a plethora of assessments of their Zero LED lamp, a product whose interior bank of low watt LEDs interact with a glass diffuser to perfectly mimic the soft halogen light we so love, but at a substantially lower environmental cost. According to the manufacturer, “the results of this combination is a very efficient light and a very low energy consume.” Nothwithstanding the amusing translation, consumers seem to be getting the point: Punto Zero’s distinctive futuristic aesthetic is a testament to form following function, to how the goal of lower energy output can also produce a staggeringly beautiful design. One sees something of the sort in Zero’s companion piece–the Punto Sensation is a diminutive gem of a suspension lamp, whose artistic appearance takes center stage over its minimal consumption.

Punto Sensation. Designed by Punto Zero.

While Zero has a futuristic look that evokes the familiar Kubrickian conception of vibrant coronal displays amid swirling eddies of phosphorescent nebula, Punto reminds me of Victorian gas lamps, those ubiquitous set pieces of 19th. century London street scenes, always there to light the proceedings with an eerie glow, whether dealing with Dickens or Jack the Ripper. Punto achieves its intricate assemblage of downcast shadows via an internal metal element whose underside is perforated with a hundred or so tiny holes. The light that passes through the transparent glass diffuser is thus already shattered into these multiple fragments, creating what Punto describes as “an interplay of light… direct light radiates from one side while the bright small holes specially forged on the other originate a unique points of light effect.”

The aforesaid emission is quite alluring, if a bit spooky. Effectively, Punto creates a dual effect of spot and ambient lighting, which does light up a room in a most unusual way. And the glass diffuser only adds to the formulation, evoking the sense of something small and fragile and precious protected inside a transparent vessel, which thereby encourages all us voyeurs. In fact it reminds me of the familiar “mad scientist” concocting his creations in his odd array of phosphorescent glass beakers. So if your environs could do with multiple rays of ghoulish, two-tiered, and eerie white light, you should definitely examine the contents of Punto.