Designer Michael Anastassiades unveiled his Cygnet light, made from Japanese washi paper and informed by childhood memories of kite flying, at this year’s Milan design week.
An exhibition at the Jacqueline Vodoz and Bruno Danese Foundation in central Milan showcased Cygnet alongside two other new designs by Anastassiades – Frame and Floor Mobile Chandelier.
But it was Cygnet that took centre stage, with the modular lights hung from bamboo poles in one of the foundation’s historic rooms. The poles were rotated 45 degrees to create a diamond shape and bound together using an adapted Japanese square lash.
Cables were hidden inside the bamboo stalks, so the lights appeared to be floating and lit by themselves.
The design was informed by Anastassiades’ childhood hobby of building kites out of cane, paper and a DIY glue made of flour and water.
“I was absolutely obsessed with flying kites as high as they could possibly fly,” Anastassiades told Dezeen.
“And then there was a moment when you could no longer see the kite, you would lose it in the sky,” he added. “It’s playing with the wind and then the sun hits it and you see it glow. [The Cygnet] is about capturing that moment.”
The lighting is made from Japanese washi paper, a material that Anastassiades has worked with previously.
“It was a simple starting point for me to work with this indirect, softer light and work with paper,” he said. “I think this is almost a sort of flying object that could become a light.”
“We did a lamp last year, called Blue Skies, which is also made with wood and washi paper; again, it’s about capturing the light in an indirect way,” he added.
The design of the Cygnet light also draws on scientist Alexander Graham Bell’s tetrahedral kite. Anastassiades’ design is constructed from two equilateral paper triangles, illuminated by a hidden LED light source.
The light comes in two sizes – 60 and 90 centimetres – and in a variety of compositions.
Anastassiades also showed a new light in the Euroluce section of furniture fair Salone del Mobile – a design for lighting brand Flos called Linked that “hangs like jewellery from the ceiling”.
This Milan design week also saw a number of brands and designers put on shows in intimate apartment settings.
The photography is by Nicolò Panzeri.
Milan design week took place from April 7 to 13. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
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