CULTIVATING WHEAT ON JAPANESE hillsides is one thing, but producing neon space-age reeds is quite another. Yet on mountain slopes outside Tokio´s k-Museum and on the Mura-N Terrrace in the village of Sakauchi, architect Makoto Sei Watanabe has successfully created “Fiber Wave”, an installation of 150 carbon-fibre rods  tipped with lights. Aiming to “make the wind visible”, Watanabe´s stuning works of art use no electrical or mechanical power. Instead, their movements are determined by whichever way the winds is blowing.

Spotted on the 2006 Stockholm Furniture Fair: GloFab by Torbjorn Lundell. The concept of GloFab is to weave fiber-optics into radiant curtains, draperies or objects. Quite an accomplishments as we all know that bending fiber-optics can reduce light transmission dramatically. However, GloFab radiates dimmed or bright, in any colour and without a flaw. A beautiful multi purpose product, worth seeing!

Improved lighting on streets and highways, the countrywide awakening to the negative effects of light pollution, and strong growth in construction - particularly "main street" housing communities - are all contributing to strong growth in the outdoor lighting market, which is expected to reach $3.8 billion by 2010, according to Outdoor Lighting in the U.S., a new report from market research publisher Specialists in Business Information (SBI), a division of MarketResearch.com.