Head to our Instagram for a chance to win this lamp, now through Monday!

Ever since she attended the RCA in the early 2010s, Rotterdam-based Marjan van Aubel — whom we interviewed yesterday to mark the debut of her Miami Art and Design Week collaboration with Lexus — has been a fervent proponent of solar energy, and specifically of using design to make the technology more appealing to architects, manufacturers, and everyday people. She wrote a book about the subject, and in 2021 co-hosted the first biennial dedicated to it as well. And yet for years she found herself in the awkward position of being unable to practice what she preached, living in an apartment building where she, like so many others, had no access to her roof and no way to install solar panels there. Her attempts to grapple with solar’s accessibility issue drove the early part of her career, and in 2021, she released a product that — while it couldn’t solve the problem entirely — was a step in the right direction: the solar-powered Sunne lamp, a statement piece for the home that could perpetually power itself when hung in virtually any unimpeded window.

Sunne is objectively speaking a lamp, one with solar cells lining its back side and a filtered light source on the front that can, with a tap on its frame, cycle through three different vibrant color spectrums meant to evoke sunrise (pale yellow) and sunset (fiery red or purple-y pink). But having it in your living room or bedroom is less about helping you see the crossword or pick an outfit and more about the feeling or the mood it evokes — it’s a scene-setter, whether you’re after a soft glow on a quiet morning or something a little more glam at night. And of course, like van Aubel’s installation in Miami this week, it’s also a reminder that a better, more sustainable future is within our reach.

As of today, you can purchase a Sunne light in our online shop. But from now through Sunday, December 10, you can also enter to win one — just head over to our Instagram post and follow the instructions to enter (see terms and conditions here). In case you need a little encouragement, check out the images of Sunne below, which we shot in the homes of three tastemakers in NYC: Kinder Modern’s Lora Appleton, Ashley Hildreth, and our very own Jill Singer.

PHOTOS BY MATTHEW GORDON Lora Appleton Jill Singer Ashley Hildreth