The new Wireline lamp by Formafantasma for Flos

18 March 2021

“Every author has an obsession. Ours is light »declare Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin – founders of the Formafantasma studio – who created WireLine, the new light produced by Flos. The partnership with the company was born already in 2017, the year in which the two designers had designed the WireRing lamp, and from that project the formal reflection on the cable began, a traditionally “poor” or in any case strictly functional element of the lamps, an element to hide. Well, Formafantasma, with that lamp brought him to the fore. And therefore, as in WireRing, also in WireLine the electric cable constitutes the soul of the project, a soul that is not only functional but also formal.

Here the cable is made of rubber, crushed to take on the appearance of a belt, a reference to the industrial world, a recurring theme in the design but declined in a completely new way in this lamp. The strap, in fact, creates the shape of the lamp and supports an extruded grooved glass rod inside which the LED light source is placed. The cable, in the words of Formafantasma, becomes an «aesthetic, iconic and performative» element. This last aspect is not secondary: the strap can be fixed to the ceiling by modulating its length from two to eight meters. This means that the lamp can adapt to various types of environments with ceilings of different heights. And each configuration corresponds to a different scenario, with a different atmosphere generated, precisely by the height of the light source and the scenic presence of these belts lowered from above.

In combination with the refined extruded borosilicate glass bar, which contains the LED, it is almost reminiscent of the trapeze of a juggler suspended in height. And the effect of several combined elements, placed at different heights and perhaps crossed with each other, is that of a futuristic forest of light and rubber belts. Here lies the playful profile of a lamp reduced to the essence of its constituent parts, parts common to any type of lamp which, however, surprisingly, produce uniqueness here.

Almost as if wanting to reveal a secret, to reveal that the key to formal innovation was right there, for all to see, but no one had noticed. And without adding anything else, but on the contrary by stripping the archetype of the lamp, Formafantasma realizes its little revolution and invites us to think out-of-the-box.

The light emitted is compact and homogeneous, the light bar is fixed to the belt by means of two metal connectors, one of which is electrified. The straps are fixed to the ceiling by means of two rosettes, one of which is placed in correspondence with the light point and equipped with a dimmer.

Close to a wall or in the center of the room, in a domestic or contract environment, WireLine is not only a formal intuition but also an excellent practical solution that can be easily integrated into contemporary but also period contexts. Thanks also to the neutral but also glamorous pink and forest green colors.

Images by Olya Oleinic and Tommaso Sartori

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