Stone that glows is having a moment, and one of the slickest names in architectural lighting just leaned all the way in. Modular Lighting Instruments has unveiled its November 2026 collection, and the star is a material the brand has never used before: alabaster, shaped into soft spheres of light for its Gamin and Shellby fixtures.
Alabaster lighting, made by hand
Alabaster is a soft, translucent natural stone that forms underground over thousands of years, as minerals and impurities settle inside it and leave behind its trademark veining. Modular sources its stone from Aragón in northern Spain, picked for quality, and only carefully selected raw material makes the cut.
The making process is half old craft, half modern machine. Each block is shaped by hand in a specialised workshop, then a CNC machine cuts it into a perfect sphere. The stone is hollowed out to cut weight and let more light pass through, and a special oil coating finishes it off. The alabaster story spells out the result: as the light comes on, the veins come alive in irregular patterns, and the stone softens and diffuses the glow into something warm.
No two spheres are alike, because the stone decides. And unlike a lot of lighting that looks dead when switched off, these hold their appeal in daylight too. The brand pictures them in rooms full of dark veneer, rich fabrics, distinctive textures and warm colours, which sounds about right.
Shellby and Gamin get the stone
Gamin and Shellby were picked because their round, soft forms let the material take centre stage. Shellby also gains new cast bronze and cast black finishes to sit alongside its cast grey, plus an aluminium tumbled version that gives it a rawer, more brutalist edge.
Tumbled aluminium and cast finishes everywhere
That tumbled finish turns up across the collection. The aluminium is literally tumbled with small stones, leaving a matt surface with visible texture. Minude gets it along with new cast bronze and black versions, and Semih, one of the brand's best known luminaires, now comes in cast grey, bronze and black as well as aluminium tumbled.
The practical upgrades
For architects and installers there is plenty more. Klevr gains an adjustable version that tilts up to 30 degrees within the same cut-out, making it an adjustable, IP rated recessed spotlight, plus a Klevr Low Recessed with a depth of just 60 mm for tight ceilings. The Pista track adds an in-track Casambi DALI dimming module that stays almost invisible, and the SLD20, SLD25, SLD35 and Como Corner profiles get warm dim LED strips in IP20 and IP54, so the light gets warmer as it dims.
Why it matters
This one is Surfacing. Architectural lighting is usually about disappearing into the ceiling. With alabaster, Modular is going the other way and making the light source the object, one you can't mass produce into sameness. For more lights worth building a room around, see our best design lamps, and for the roots of that raw, tumbled look, read brutalism explained.
