Barcelona: Vincon

A trip to Barcelona should include a trip to Vincon for anyone who is design obsessed. Housed in a historic building on the Passeig de Gracia it is filled to the brim with classic pieces and unique creations, many of which are at affordable prices. The lighting department and the furniture gallery should not be missed! Here are some items that caught my eye...


To the right is a Ron Arad chair designed in 2005.







This is a cube light that comes on when you open the top.





Finally, the cereal dispenser, a very useful device in my house.

Milan Preview

I am heading to Milan this week for the Salone Internazionale del Mobile and hope to come home with a boatload of information, ideas and inspirations for my posts. To say that I am excited would be a vast understatement! I thought I would start with some of the Milan previews that I find really interesting.


Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec designed these chairs for Vitra (left); and the Pol sofa and Stone light for Kartell and Swarovski.


Foster & Partners are launching these chairs (below) for Emeco called 20-06, which are made from 80% recycled aluminium.



Luce Plan is also launching this beautiful light designed by Inga Sempe (below).

Translucent Porcelain Lighting

I find the use of translucent porcelain in contemporary lighting exquisite. Delicate shapes and monumental forms take on a soft warm glow as they are illuminated from within the unglazed ceramic.



Here are two examples by a company called Diffuse that is based in the UK and owned by Jason and Lucy Boatswain. They slip cast their own porcelain and make pendants, wall lights, lamps and chandeliers. A lot of their pieces are custom designed like the chandelier shown (above), but there are many amazing stock designs to choose from as well (right).



The Cibola Pendant light by Scabetti (Dominic Bromley) is another striking example of how porcelain lighting can take on a sculptural quality.

IQ Light

Here is another example of great interactive design. The IQ Light is a self assembly lighting system consisting of interlocking quadrilaterals made of translucent PVC. It comes with easy to follow instructions, that show you how to make lamps of various shapes and sizes by linking together the identical elements.



As you have probably caught on from my previous posts, I love interior design that can interact with those who live and/or work within it. If a client was not totally keen on the idea of a completely interactive environment, something like the IQ Light could offer a smaller and perhaps subtler way, of allowing them to leave a creative fingerprint on their living space. How could you get bored of a light like this?

The IQ Light was designed in 1972 by Danish designer Holger Strøm, who was then working at the Kilkenny Design Workshops, Ireland. Kilkenny Illuminations Ltd. sold around 20,000 of these lights until 1999 when the rights were sold to Bald and Bang and it was relaunched in Copehagen.