Maritime gas lamps were used as a reference for these pendant lights created by Danish studio Space Copenhagen for design brand &tradition.
To create the Copenhagen Pendant, Space Copenhagen modernised the form of the old lamps once used to illuminate the Danish capital's piers.
The studio's design for Danish company &tradition consists of a lacquered metal shade, which is clamped to the cord with four arching plated steel tabs where the curving shape narrows at the top.
"The starting point was to create a design that would allow us to use various metals, but also that the design works from a purely sculptural point of view, with a monochrome finish," said Space Copenhagen founding partner Peter Bundgaard Rützou. "Depending on the purpose and space it's used in, the lamp can do both."
Light is directed downward through a wide hole in the base of the shade.
"The pendant is widest in the middle and narrows at the open top and bottom to ensure that the lamp has a substantial body, while still protecting you from looking directly into the light," said the studio's second partner Signe Bindslev Henriksen.
The lamps are available in three sizes and five matte colours. The two smaller designs are made from steel and the larger model is formed from aluminium.
Copenhagen Pendant will be presented at imm Cologne next week, as well as at Maison & Objet in Paris at the end of this month and during Stockholm Design Week in February.
Here's some more information for the designers:
&tradition launches the Copenhagen Pendant light by Space Copenhagen
In their second collaboration, following the success of the Fly lounge series, &tradition collaborates with Space Copenhagen on a new elegant pendant light.
"We are very pleased to be working with Space Copenhagen again," says Martin Kornbek Hansen, the Brand Manager of &tradition. "They have an exceptional eye for detail and surface texture, and a unique way of combining the classic with the contemporary."
An exercise in contrasts, the Copenhagen Pendant combines the classic and the modern, the maritime and the industrial. Its matte lacquered metal lampshade disperses the light in a subtle but spectacular way resembling the classic gaslight feel of the bleak Copenhagen piers.
"Over the years we have made several bespoke light pieces for our interior projects," says Signe Bindslev Henriksen of Space Copenhagen. "So the biggest challenge in designing the Copenhagen Pendant was to meet our own expectations in making an equally sculptural and functional light."
Originally, Space Copenhagen designed one version of the pendant, but it expanded into a series of three sizes: 200 millimetres, 350 millimetres and 600 millimetres in diameter, and five matte shades: blush, moss, slate, black and white. "The starting point was to create a design which would allow us to use various metals, but also that the design works from a purely sculptural point of view, with a monochrome finish. Depending on the purpose and space it's used in, the lamp can do both," says Space Copenhagen's other founding partner, Peter Bundgaard Rützou.
The flexibility and attention to detail of the Copenhagen Pendant is a careful consideration inspired by Space Copenhagen's experience as interior architects. Even the flow of light was carefully planned from the start. "The pendant is widest in the middle and narrows at the open top and bottom to ensure that the lamp has a substantial body, while still protecting you from looking directly into the light," says Bindslev Henriksen. The downwards light is even and solid, while the subtle uplight is diffused, adding to the atmosphere of the ceiling.
"The Copenhagen Pendant is a perfect example of a classic typology of light reinvented in an innovative and contemporary way, qualities that we value highly at &tradition," says Kornbek Hansen.
For job opportunities at &tradition, visit their company profile on Dezeen Jobs.