Minimalist Design & Architecture | Minimalism(i)

If you ever buy V12 Design’s Bow lamp, do not be disappointed after receiving a box with nothing but a straight thin beam of aluminum, a semi-spherical lampshade and a roll of colored eletrical cable inside. Valerio Cometti’s brainchild is much more than that.

“When I came up with the concept of Bow, I was trying to design a lamp with a specific and versatile function (lightbulb hovering above the living room area, or the kitchen table and so on), but I wanted to design such lamp so that it had no real “body”, whose shape was provided by forces and tensions, rather than a case or a chassis (think about my Katana for ITre for instance).”

“The cable itself is the “spinal cord” to the lamp: it gives the necessary tension to bend the rod and to turn it into an arc and, of course, at the same time, it provides the necessary electrical power. Visually, the cable is also an important design element of the hole lamp: its position and inclination in space are designed by its mechanical tension.”

“It hasn’t been easy to hone the structure and its components, because in several countries the electrical cable cannot be pulled with more than 35N (around 3.5Kg). And there was no way I would have accepted to have two cables: an electrical one and a mechanical one. So we patiently adjusted the design, the dimensions, the materials, etc until we managed to fulfill the requirements, respecting my original concept: one and only cable both for mechanical and electrical tensions.”

“I also like the simple, almost rudimental way of setting the height of the lampshade, by simply adjusting the length of the cable from the hook on the wall. I don’t think I have designed Bow: I have controlled and tweaked the forces that have designed it.”

Design: Valerio Cometti | V12 Design