One solar light, instead of a lightbulb, saves 90 pounds of carbon emissions a year.
Every small step counts.
1.6 billion people live without access to electricity.
10% of our profit helps someone in need.
DESIGN MATTERS
The sun is an amazing thing. It gives us nine hundred and seventy trillion kilowatt hours of energy each day. That’s enough energy to give every single person on the planet a lightbulb that would shine bright for their entire lifetime. But we have a crisis right now and it’s tied to fossil fuels. It’s making us sick. it’s making our kids sick and it’s making our planet sick. In the rest of the world, there’s another toxic fossil fuel: kerosene. And when the sun goes down, 1.6 billion people live without access to electricity and rely on kerosene to light their night.
We are passionate about designing beautiful products that help make choosing to live a more sustainable, healthier lifestyle easier and accessible.
Our solar lights are the new personal devices, thoughtfully designed to provide individualized access to solar energy. We don’t need to wait years for large, expensive, solar infrastructure to act. We believe that each of us has the power to create change now.
INSPIRED BY ORIGAMI
Our innovative, award-winning origami design differentiates our Solar Lights from our competitors because it eliminates the need for a mouth nozzle to inflate. Easier and healthier to open, our Solar Lights are designed to be able to transform from a flat polygon into beautiful cube and pyramid shapes with a simple pull-open action. Recognized globally, our designs have won several product innov ation accolades, awarded two US Utility Patents and lauded by leaders in design including MoMA, the Modern Museum of Art.
CREATED BY ARCHITECTURAL AND MATERIAL EXPERTS
Utilizing the latest in recyclable, biodegradable fabric and material technology, our products are engineered to be lighter for ease of travel and to be stronger and more durable to withstand the most extreme weather conditions. We leverage smart material technology which enables immediate transformation from flat to cube with the ability to retain the rigid form of their shapes while being soft enough to fold flat. Our unique fabrication results in the creation of an amazing spectrum of beautiful light.
Flat pack and travel anywhere
High-Tech Fabric is Engineered for Extreme Weather
Waterproof and They Float
Innovative origami design
Powered by the sun
The only self-inflating lantern
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Alice Min Soo Chun
Founder
As a little girl growing up in Seoul, Korea and then upstate New York, Alice spent many days learning how a simple fold can become structure. Origami forms were taught to her by her mother, who also taught Alice how to sew her own clothes. Always creative, fascinated by design, structure and forms, Alice studied architecture at Penn State where she obtained her undergraduate degree and went on to earn her Masters in Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania.
With emerging trends in material technology resulting in smarter, lighter, faster, sustainable fabrication, Alice started to sew solar panels to fabric as early experiments for harnessing solar energy with softer, malleable material. She became focused on solar technology and finding ways to create clean energy solutions upon learning her son Quinn was diagnosed with asthma.
While teaching as a Professor in Architecture and Material Technology at Columbia University, Alice created early prototypes of solar lights with her students. Still not satisfied, and fuelled by her passion for helping the underserved, Alice invented the world’s only self-inflatable, portable solar light, eliminating the need for a mouth nozzle. This ensured a healthy, sanitary method to inflate. Alice named this invention the SolarPuff™ and conducted three years of field testing in Haiti. In 2015 she launched Solight Design and initiated a KickStarter program with unprecendented results. She went on to win numerous awards including the US Patent Award for Humanity, 2022 FORBES Women in Impact Award and her products have been exhibited at MOMA, the Modern Museum of Art in New York City. She is honored as one of Marie Claire's most Influential Women and in 2022 she is featured on the AppleTV Plus docuseries GUTSY with Hillary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton episode 6.
OUR STORY
2006
Quinn, Alice’s son, is diagnosed with asthma. She discovers 1 out of 4 kids in New York City have asthma due to air pollution and decides to focus on solar technology while teaching at Columbia University.
2009
Alice shares her solar research with her students at Columbia University in her material technology class as inspiration for a design proposal assignment. A large inflatable solar light with mouth nozzle is produced as a full scale prototype.
2010
The Haiti earthquake strikes and Alice transform her studio at Columbia University into an innovation workshop to help Haiti. A smaller version of an inflatable solar light with mouth nozzle prototype is produced. Still not satisfied with these early prototypes and concerned about the spreading of germs, disease and contamination because of the mouth nozzle required to inflate, Alice uses origami to create a structure and form without the need to inflate by mouth. The SolarPuff is born.
2015
After three years of field testing in Haiti, Alice launches Solight Design, with a global social mission to help make solar light and power accessible to everyone. Solight Design initiates a Kickstarter for SolarPuff ™with exceptional results and delivers its first 15,000 SolarPuffs to backers. Alice continues her humanitarian efforts in Nepal, Haiti, Ghana, Liberia and with Syrian refugees in Greece, working with NGO partners delivering SolarPuffs to those in need.
2017
With the devastating impact of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, 130,000 SolarPuffs™ were distributed through NGO partners including Operation Blessing. The Hispanic Federation and the Clinton Global Initiative. Alice continues her humanitarian efforts in Puerto Rico visiting schools and delivering SolarPuffs™in hard to reach rural areas.
2018
Alice completes the QWNN prototype and Solight Design launches Indiegogo for mass market support. QWNN™ is awarded a US Utility Patent. Solight Design is recognized by the Clinton Global Initiative for their commitment to Puerto Rico. SolarPuff™also wins the US Patents for Humanity Award for new innovations that solve global development challenges.
2019
Solight Design delivers first orders of Solar QWNN™to Indiegogo backers. Alice is featured in Hilary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton’s upcoming release ”The Book of Gutsy Women: Favourite Stories of Courage and Resilience” published by Simon and Schuster.
