Product news: lamps often have heavy bases to steady them, making them awkward and costly to ship, so London-based Studio Tord Boontje swapped them for empty baskets which can be filled with objects like stones, books or apples.
Each lamp in the Japanese-inspired Lightweight collection has a paper shade around its LED bulb and a stem made from two canes of bamboo.
The collection includes a desk light, three floor lights and a hanging light which can be adjusted by adding weight to its basket.
The materials are largely sourced from within the UK, including bamboo grown in Scotland, wire baskets and joints made in Yorkshire, cables and copper plating made in London and fabric shades made in Wales. The lights are assembled at Boontje's shop and studio in London where they were launched during the London Design Festival last month.
Earlier this year we filmed Boontje giving a tour of the graduate show at the Royal College of Art, where he leads the Design Products course.
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Here's some more information from Studio Tord Boontje:
Rocks, bamboo and paper banners. Lightweight is like a traditional Japanese garden; a small contemplation on light, objects, energy and nature.
The Lightweight collection started with the idea to develop an alternative to shipping heavy lamp bases around the world. With the Lightweight collection you can use heavy objects that you have at home to balance these lamps. The baskets are designed to hold stones (like gabions), books, perfume bottles, plants, postcards or other collections.
This studio-produced collection includes a desk light, a hanging light and three different floor lights. The Desk Light is fully adjustable in height and rotation angle. It has a circular paper shade around the LED bulb and the basket is a bit larger than A4 size, so it functions as an in-tray as well. You can adjust the Hanging Light by adding weight to the small basket. The soft-box lampshade is inspired by photography studio lights.
The Floor Standing Light has a Tyvek paper banner onto which a blossom drawing is screen-printed in our studio. The lightʼs stem is made of a bamboo cane that was grown in Scotland. The cable is made in London as well as the copper plating. The fabric soft-boxes are made in Wales. The wire baskets and joints are made in Yorkshire. The cable clips and assembly is done in our studio / shop. All lights use LED or low energy light bulbs.
The Lightweight collection includes: Desk Light; Floor Standing Banner Light; Floor Standing Soft-box Light; Floor Standing Reading Light; Hanging Light. The Lightweight collection was launched as part of the Squirrelʼs Electro Garden Party and is available exclusively from our shop in Shoreditch, London with prices starting from £220.