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Home / Design  / Telescoping chandeliers, Louis Vuitton bag tables, light sculptures, and more: Eat-your-heart-out stuff coming from Italy and beyond

Telescoping chandeliers, Louis Vuitton bag tables, light sculptures, and more: Eat-your-heart-out stuff coming from Italy and beyond

The contemporary chandelier

While there were numerous traditional chandeliers on show, increasingly the chandelier has been interpreted in contemporary and truly beautiful fittings, such as the Bocci organic light fitting.  This is a contemporary “chandelier” that fills a space, as the plants in the terraria organically grow through the space. These transform plain spaces as the chandelier then becomes an organic sculpture.

Another trend was Light Animation, such as a kinetic light that moves and can even be set to music. It absolutely transforms the space, and can be static or moving. The speed can be changed mechanically, and the shapes are constantly evolving. It is a combination of a light and kinetic sculpture and is quite stunning as well as mesmerising.

The emergence of OLED

OLED is a technology that has been an emerging trend for a while, and comes out of  television technology. OLED stands for organic light emitting diode, which emits light in response to an electric current. This gives it the ability to be integrated into fine discs, glass shelves and flexible panels.  The applications for that are very exciting, particularly in retail and furniture design.

LG are leaders in this technology and to see the LG stand take this technology and apply it was truly inspiring. For the first time we are seeing it applied into beautiful installations.

Reinventing the Lightbulb

The merging of lights into furniture – is it furniture or a light or both? While it references the traditional lightbulb this challenges us with its use of OLED technology.  It can be designed for pendant or tracking lighting.

The quality of the light output and its seamless integration into glass, shelving and furnishings heralds many opportunities for inspired design solutions. The applications for retail design are of particular interest.

Light or Furnishing

On that theme of integration of lighting into design, the Vibia shelving light was inspiring. Again, is it a shelf or a light? This uses LED technology. What I liked was the integration of light and furniture, so it almost becomes a sculpture, but a usable sculpture.

Fashion meets Furniture

Increasingly the presence of fashion houses in the furniture industry is apparent. Fendi is known traditionally for its elegant garments and handbags. But it has now branched into furniture and the Fendi exhibition stand bore testament to their growth in this market. The furnishing was elegant, luxurious, with a lot of use of metal such as brass and bronze – true to the Fendi brand – and if desired, the Fendi logo could be applied or integrated into the furnishing. Will this lead increasingly to seasonally fashioned furniture?

Louis Vuitton moves into furniture

The Louis Vuitton furniture all references Louis Vuitton’s history of luggage and luxury travel. The furniture continues with this ethos by being collapsible, movable and nomadic in nature, without losing attention to detail, which is synonymous with the brand.

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Vee Kessner is the creative director of Parnell based Space Studio, which specialises in hotel and retail design throughout Oceania.

Review overview