I've always been a bit spooked by the concept of radar. This is not only because I've got sort of a paranoid complex about the propensities of an unspecified "They" to keep tabs on my goings and doings, but also because my personal iconography for radar involves a behemoth contraption of glass and steel somewhere in the netherlands of the Nevada desert, rotating monotonously with malevolent purpose. Designer Ingo Maurer is doing his best to temper my fears.

Radarrr Floor Lamp. Designed by Ingo Maurer and Tobias Reischle.

His Radarrr Floor Lamp-developed in collaboration with Tobias Reischle-shares the same parabolic profile of those tremendous transmitters of electromagnetic information, though it's perched atop a rather thinnish tripod of steel legs and, rather than containing the "resistive and sometimes magnetic substances" that actual radar antennae are made of, Radarrr's surface is studded with rectangles of aluminum facets. All the better to disperse the light emitted from Radarrr's facing panel of LEDs.

Radarrr is highly functional and energy efficient, and definitely not as ominous as its gigantic government-owned brethren. The strategy of reflecting a highly-concentrated beam of compact LEDs results in a rather savvy re-distribution of precious light, creating an effect of dispersal that's midway between ambient light and spotlighting. Thus, Radarrr has a bit of a dual nature. It's perfect for washing walls with soft focused light, yet it also illuminates the darkened atmosphere directly above, beneath, and in front of its faceted reflective panel. And it sports an acanthoid cooling element on the backside of the light source, a feature that, in addition to providing a valuable service, gives Radarrr some extra-worldy textural interest.

Radarrr is constructed of steel and aluminum. Its bank of LEDs produce 26 warm white watts, and its ball-joint hinge allows easy adjustment of the radar screen to transmit light exactly where you want it.