it’s so true, isn’t it, that the simplest things are usually by far the most effective? That’s why we love this new design for Habitat by Tord Boontje so much. Part of Habitat’s new autumn collection, the Bouquet light shade is the designer’s contribution to the Habitat Design Reunion project which brings together six acclaimed Habitat designers to celebrate the brand’s 50th birthday this year.
Exclusive to Habitat, Bouquet is the successor to Tord’s massively popular metallic Garland shade, first launched in 2003 and still a best seller today. This time made from flexible sheet plastic, the white Bouquet ceiling light is made up of 20 different intricately cut elements that you attach by hooks to create a floral arrangement around a light bulb, instead of within a vase.
Here the designer explains how the idea came about:
My aim for Bouquet was to create a successor to the Garland – a delicate, floral light arrangement that was affordable and had a contemporary romantic look. Whilst I was considering this I was visiting my mother’s home in Sweden admiring the flowers in the garden and flower arrangements in vases inside.
Then I thought it could be great to create a light that works in a similar way – a light which allowed you to arrange a variety of individual floral elements around a bulb instead of a vase.
I collected a variety of leaves and flowers from this garden that I took back to London pressed in a book which were then scanned and became the basis for the new design. The starting shapes were modified, scaled and added to in the drawing process, always keeping in mind the way in which the leaves needed to shade the light bulb and the transparency of the perforations.
Here he is telling the story in person, and you can also see some great close-up details of the intricately cut out shapes in this very short video:
The Bouquet light shade come conveniently flat-packed and can be arranged and rearranged to your heart’s content to create your own favourite combination of shapes and shadows, with the finished shade measuring a generous W30 x H65 x D30cm. I’m sure it will become just as popular and well-loved as the Garland light, and will definitely last much longer than cut flowers, that’s for sure.
Images: Habitat
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