Snøhetta designs lamp series for Italian lighting specialist, Lodes.
Snøhetta’s product design team has designed a series of lamps for the famous Italian lamp manufacturer, Lodes. Known for their contemporary, innovative designs, Snøhetta is proud to announce its first collaboration with the Italian lighting specialists, whose tradition and expertise within the art of lamp making goes back more than 70 years.
The partnership sees the launch of a new lighting collection entitled Volum, an exclusive series of glass lamps that is poetically simple yet complex in its technically driven solution - designed to fill a space with an uninterrupted, 360-degree illumination. Due to the minimal solution for the suspension, the lamp glows uniformly in all directions, giving a calm and coherent light from any angle, in any space.
"At Snøhetta we often talk about the notion of prepositions – the relationship between objects and people in a space. Applying this way of thinking – viewing something as above, below or next to something else – to a light source, it needs to be as functional and beautiful from all prepositions in space. The Volum series solves this in its technical solution, with an uninterrupted, 360-degree glow made possible due to matching, transparent lid, while celebrating the craft of glassmaking", says Marius Myking, Director of Product Design at Snøhetta.
An homage to tradition
Snøhetta was inspired by the architectural need for a contextually adaptable and scalable pendant light and consequently created an elegant white blown glass lamp available in four size options: 14 cm, 22 cm, 29 cm, and 42 cm (diameter), and despite their different sizes, they complement each other intuitively and harmoniously.
The Volum series sets a new standard with modern architectural sensibilities and pays homage to the Italian tradition of globe-shaped, glass lamps, and especially the glassblowing process.
"To elevate the material and its process, the shapes are derived from working with a glassblower, where the glass changes to a naturally imperfect shape during the process. The four volumes are therefore not the same shape, but rather intuitively fit with each other in different ways to make unique compositions and each size formed to its ideal use from clusters to singles", says Myking.
Seamless and understated, each Volum globe sees the diffuser and frame appear as one, single form – from which the cable is the only detached element. To achieve this level of superb cleanliness, the upper part of the glass has been skilfully cut – at 45 degrees – so that it can be closed with a translucent methacrylate lid that seals the lamp. While the lid conceals a metal part attached to the diffuser and the frame that houses the light source, the only exposed element on the outside is a small opening that allows the cable in and helps balance the globe.
Translucency
A unique aspect about Volum is the fact that it gives an uninterrupted 360-degree glow, made possible with the translucency of the lid. Many iterations and prototypes were made and tested out in the design process to get the light quality and expression to match the glass and to verify the possibility of the concept to create this continuity at the top. It is one of the details that define the Volum lamp.
During the entire design process of Volum, sketches have been an integral part of understanding the implication of imperfections in a circle. The different explorations led to reaching distinct shapes for the four sizes of the lamp that each have their own character. Slight changes and nuances result in very different expressions, which makes it harder than it might seem to find simple imperfection.
Volum is completed with a glossy white finish that is bold yet traditional, offering a decorative touch thanks to the reflections on the surface. With a single transparent hanging power cable, the three smaller sizes can be hung individually, as well as in a cluster on a canopy to make unique compositions.
– It was an honour to do this Project with Snøhetta, and the designers immediately understood what we wanted with the project, our history, and our vision. What they have created is a perfect interpretation of the past and the future, and we could not be happier with the result. With this reinterpretation of a lighting archetype, Volum represents another step in Lodes' ongoing exploration of the relationship between lighting, space, and the ways in which the individual interacts with these elements, says Massimiliano Tosetto, Managing Director at Lodes.
