\n<\/p>\n
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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/span><\/p>\n Every ship\u2019s lantern in every antique shop has a story. One rarely told, however, is simply why they look the way they do. These objects were built to withstand the toughest of environments: galvanised steel to protect against the elements and glass fresnel lenses to keep their lights shining brightly. From the protective cages to the swing handles, they\u2019re masterpieces of design \u2013 but what might a modern day version look like?<\/p>\n While maritime lighting technology has come a long way, portable lanterns appear to have given way to cheaper and far less hardy alternatives. \u201cI couldn\u2019t find any lantern that I could put on the beach, or one that would be OK in salt air and salt water,\u201d says Sir Jony Ive. A man famed for his creative responses to utilitarian problems could do only one thing: design one.<\/p>\n The result of his labours is the Sailing Lantern ($4,800, balmuda.com), a collaboration between Ive\u2019s LoveFrom collective and the Japanese design firm Balmuda. It\u2019s an extraordinary piece, combining high-end materials \u2013 precision-ground glass, machined and polished stainless steel and a weatherproof textured polyester strap \u2013 with clever use of LED and rechargeable battery technology. Its appearance evidently has references to maritime lanterns of yesteryear, but Ive stresses that this isn\u2019t a contrivance. \u201cIt\u2019s not a mere visual interpretation,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople have been trying to figure out how to deal with seawater and sea air for hundreds of years, and we were trying to solve the same problems. Those references are present because when I\u2019m thinking about the future, I always end up looking at the past.\u201d<\/p>\n When I\u2019m thinking about the future, I always end up looking at the past<\/p>\n Jony Ive<\/p>\n Gen Terao, founder of Balmuda, describes the design as \u201ca gift from Jony\u2019s team\u201d, but admits that the engineering and manufacturing process was a formidable challenge. \u201cI thought a great deal about the glass and how its angles cast a small amount of light from a small lantern over as wide an area as possible,\u201d he says. Ive, meanwhile, notes the hugely corrosive properties of salt: \u201cMost stainless steels will corrode. Only a few are marine grade. But I think that we both really loved how particular and how extreme this functional challenge was.\u201d<\/p>\n A top-down view of the LoveFrom x Balmuda Sailing Lantern, $4,800<\/span> \u00a9 Dwight Eschliman<\/span><\/p>\n Since Balmuda\u2019s inception in 2003, it has gained a reputation for its finesse and attention to detail, producing products (such as its award-winning steam toaster) that aren\u2019t just functional but \u201cshape the atmosphere and feelings that surround you\u201d. That a kinship was found with Ive \u2013 whose career has been built upon products that are, in his words, simple to use and beautiful to look at \u2013 is unsurprising. Ive immediately had a sense that their collaboration would be fruitful. \u201cWhat you make describes who you are,\u201d he says, \u201cand in the Balmuda store in Tokyo I was moved by how singular their range of products was, this wonderful clarity and cohesion.\u201d Terao agrees: \u201cWe have so much in common, and I\u2019ve learned a lot from Jony\u2019s designs that I apply in my work today.\u201d<\/p>\n Recommended<\/p>\n \u201cWhile the Sailing Lantern is designed to withstand maritime environments, it has evidently found a place in Ive\u2019s home, too. \u201cI\u2019m surprised how gently and naturally it can sit in a variety of places \u2013 in the garden, on the beach, on a boat,\u201d he says. \u201cThink about diving watches \u2013 99 per cent of the time, they\u2019re not used for diving, and it\u2019s the same here. I love sailing, but I\u2019ve been using the prototypes at home, inside and outside.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s a sumptuous object, and a weighty one \u2013 1.5kg, to be precise. \u201cWe knew it would be substantial because the materials are machined, not die cast and plated,\u201d says Ive. \u201cBut while its mass is a consequence of the materials we\u2019ve used, what I love about that is that it feels fundamentally and inherently true. It\u2019s a sailing lantern. It\u2019s the real deal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Every ship\u2019s lantern in every antique shop has a story. One rarely told, however, is simply why they look the way they do. These objects were built to withstand the toughest of environments: galvanised steel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[1832,1434,14716,1193,14714,90,14715],"class_list":{"0":"post-24170","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-ives","9":"tag-jony","10":"tag-lantern","11":"tag-latest","12":"tag-lightbulb","13":"tag-moment","14":"tag-sailing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}