If you've seen one streetlight, you've pretty much seen them all. They're important, sure, but they're usually not much to look at. The lamps that popped up across Portland are a little bit different. A little more like giant, carnivorous plants.


"Nepenthes" by Dan Corson is a collection of four, 17-foot tall light-up sculptures that devour sunlight, and spit it back out after sundown. Though they share their name with plants known for eating bugs and occasional small animals, these sculptures just soak up rays during the day with solar panels mounted on top, and use that energy to glow for about four hours after dark. Just run-of-the-mill synthetic photosynthesis for these plants.

Made from translucent fiberglass with embedded with LED lights formed around a steel spine, each of the four lamps is structurally identical, but has a uniquely wild color scheme that sets it apart from its brothers. All and all, they seem like a neat represention of the "urban jungle," and it's a good thing they're a little more urban than jungle. [Dan Corson via Designboom]