Through a Glass Lightly
- Words George Upton
- Photography Staffan Sundström
An experiment in transparency, in partnership with Marset.
Designer Jaume Ramírez reduced the typical table lamp to three, deceptively simple elements: a cone, a sphere and a cylinder, which contains the light source.
The Fragile lamp has been designed to recall a whole history of lighting, back through fluorescent tubes, oil lamps and, in its softly diffused glow, candles.
The simple effect of light dancing on water, passing through glass or being cast into shadow has long been a source of creative inspiration. The Chinese poet Li Bai, writing over a thousand years ago, described sunlight caught in a waterfall as “the Milky Way pouring down from heaven.” In much the same way, using Marset’s Fragile lamp, Kinfolk’s creative team have similarly meditated on the interplay of refraction and reflection in transparent materials. Designed by Jaume Ramírez, the lamp diffuses a warm, gentle glow when switched on, but also has a dynamic, sculptural presence during the day, its simple glass forms—a cone, a sphere and a cylinder—responding to the ambient light as it changes throughout the day.
Story in partnership with Marset.
