WORDS Graham Wood PHOTOS William Hindle (Gregory Katz), Supplied
Never mind buildings: six renowned South African architects chat about the lights they’ve designed.
Architects are always interested in light – after all, it’s what gives expression to the architectural forms they create. Every now and again, however, they actually swap over and design a light themselves. We spoke to locals who’ve done just that.
Znake by Enrico Daffonchio
Enrico Daffonchio is known for his highly sustainable architecture. His projects include the carbon-zero office development at 78 Corlett Drive and landmarks such as The Bank in Rosebank – not to mention a slew of Tropical Modernist homes notable for their simplified aesthetics but warm, rich textures. “Znake was an exploratory project that was based on how to use the relatively new technology of LED lighting when it became available about 15 years or so ago,” says Enrico. “The beauty of the LED lighting tech is that it doesn’t require much space, so we looked at how to use a small round section of steel to create something sculptural that could cleverly conceal a light inside. Playing with shapes, we came up with this zigzag form that resembles a geometric snake rearing its head to have a look around – hence the name. | daffonchio.co.za
Barely There Floor Lamp by Gregory Katz
Gregory Katz’s playful approach to the semiotics of architecture is evident in some of the more dazzlingly creative buildings in Joburg and beyond, ranging from Corner Fox and the Shapesorter house – both previously featured in VISI – to the geometry of King David Pre-primary School in Linksfield. His simplified, minimalist lights appear as uninterrupted bent and laser-cut steel tubes, giving them a pleasingly complete and uncomplicated form. As with most minimalism, however, the simplicity of the form belies the complexity of the process. “Laser- cutting on a tube is highly specialised,” notes Gregory. The light source is an LED ribbon. The lamps are available in warm or cool white, and small (2.5m) and large (3m) sizes. | gregorykatz.co.za
Reverse Touchstone Light by Pieter Mathews
Pretoria-based architect Pieter Mathews, founder of Mathews + Associates Architects, is known for his wide-ranging and indefatigable creative drive, and has designed recent landmarks such as the Javett Art Centre at the University of Pretoria. Pieter also operates at the more ephemeral end of design practice – case in point, his establishing Cool Capital. It’s been billed as “the world’s first uncurated, DIY, guerrilla biennale”, and pivots around the idea of fusing creativity and citizen-initiated design interventions to activate shared public spaces and invigorate cities. His most recent thinking has been dominated by the crossovers between art and architecture. His Reverse Touchstone lamp – a table lamp prototype sculpted from an unfired brick – is an exploration of “handmadeness” and intuitive composition going back to the very roots of design: hand-fashioning an object from a natural material. He notes the way it deliberately bears the marks of its making – the “facets add folds, accentuating the corners and the texture of the clay”. It’s a game of meanings, because, despite looking like a brick and feeling like a brick, “It’s not a brick, it’s a light,” says Pieter, “…and a brick.” With its integrated cable design, it’s an exploration of the point at which “services become cultural” and the design starts where you are, with what you have ready at hand. | maaa.co.za
Insert Pendant by GOET Furniture and Design
Architect and urban designer Georg van Gass is the founder and director of GASS Architecture Studios. His recent award-winning projects include Green School South Africa outside Paarl, as well as the remarkable redevelopment of Jewel City in Johannesburg’s eastern CBD. For many years, Georg has also pursued an interest in furniture, lighting and accessories through GOET Furniture and Design, together with his wife, Rhone. Their designs often feature a trademark combination of laser-cut steel and timber, bringing a wide range of expression to these raw materials. The Insert light is a geometric take on the idea of the pendant light or chandelier, playing with the concepts of heaviness and lightness, solidity and hollowness, illumination and object. “This light embodies our approach to mixing and combining different materials and textures,” says Georg. | goet.co.za
Round Collection by Paul and Colleen Wygers
Architect and urban designer Paul Wygers sadly passed away late last year, but his wife, business partner and fellow architect and interior designer Colleen continues their final ROUND STUDIOS project. While Paul’s architectural projects included iconic local developments like the Constitutional Court and Constitution Hill in Johannesburg, as well as Melrose Arch, the ROUND STUDIOS collaborations are about smaller crafted objects. This first collection is a series of nine lights, playing around with colour theory and inspired by the teachings of Josef Albers, a Bauhaus educator who went on to become a landmark post-war abstract artist in the US. “We started experimenting with colour layering in a self-made light box, and the results grew into an experiment of both colour and perspective,” said Paul in a 2022 interview. The layered flat-pack approach they devised – using recyclable PET panels – is inspired by Albers’s famous series of paintings, “Homage to the Square”, and allows users to clip different coloured panels together to create their own light and colour experiments. | round.africa
Ori-Dasa
Award-winning architect Sarah Calburn and entrepreneur Dakalo Dyer have created a range of handmade origami lamps based on the designs for kusudama – small decorative origami balls traditionally filled with scented herbs and worn suspended from the wrist. The modular repetition of their geometric designs gives them an almost organic quality, and the way they catch the light inspired Sarah to experiment with reinterpreting them as lighting designs, illuminated from within by an LED. “They have a presence, and I think it’s to do with their natural form,” she says. She compares them to “burning embers at night”; complex, calming “resonant objects”. Available in two designs – the elliptical Sea Urchin and the round Convolvulus – and in a variety of sizes, they come as pendants, wall lights and table lamps. Each is individually crafted, either in cool white or hand-painted paper; the table lamp bases are either brass or steel. | oridasalights.co.za
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