Clover, the solar powered lighting with two aluminium domes adorns the streets of Paris

French designer Mathieu Lehanneur has created new eco-conscious urban street furniture that appears well at home on the city streets. The pieces are designed to imitate trees springing from Paris' urban underbelly. The light fixture comprises two aluminium domes that focus light onto a particular section of pavement to minimise energy loss and pollution. Solar panels on an extra upward-facing dome provide the LED lights with a three-hour burst of power.

The Clover series is made of wood sculptures with an extensible seat and solar-powered lights. Lehanneur approaches urban residents' needs from a humanistic perspective, giving them a vacation from the stressful city life to recharge. The solar-powered Parisian lighting comes with a tiny hatch with a power outlet for phone charging included at the foot of the light, and the seat may be extended to be nearly 15 metres long if necessary. 

These are hybrid objects par excellence, combining light and seating, wood and solar panels, town and country, as Lehanneur describes. The floor lamps and bench appear to have been polished by hand thanks to a hand-crafted aesthetic, but they were created digitally using a cutting-edge method that combines different types of wood.