The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - The Telegraph Magazine
Celestial lighting
Lee Broom’s Observatory collection
The armchair and floor lamp to be shown at Milan, both covered in deepblue Sunbrella fabric, represent more personal projects than the work Ange usually undertakes as founder and artistic director of design agency Bloom Room, whose clients include Louis Vuitton, Moët & Chandon, Jean Paul Gaultier and Paco Rabanne. Yet the new designs uphold his signature style, which has a dream-like quality inspired by childhood fancies and fears.
Le Roi is dominated by a giant teddy bear with a discarded golden crown and sceptre, an allusion to lost childhood. His leafy Le Refuge lamps relate to a childhood memory of sheltering from the sun – ‘a place where one finds comfort and peace’ – while Ange’s spiderlike Araignées chairs are ‘the symbol of my fears’. ‘My reflections are based on the subconscious and inspired by art, cinema, people and memories,’ he adds.
Le Roi is presented in the garden space of Wallpaper* Handmade, Mediateca Santa Teresa, Via della Moscova 28, 20121 Milan. bloomroomstudio.com BANG ON THE CURRENT TREND for all things planetary, Lee Broom’s Observatory lighting collection blends technology with aesthetics to reimagine cosmic forces. Seven celestial-body-style lights are launching in Milan – and, unusually, the designs will be available in store and online immediately, eliminating the usual six-month wait.
The collection took an astral turn after Broom visited friends in the Cotswolds a few years ago, and was amazed by the clarity of the night sky, away from the light pollution of London. ‘Having grown up in big cities, I rarely saw clear skies with the blanket of stars that you find in the countryside. As someone who creates light, it really resonated with me.’
The designer spent two years experimenting with the latest LED technology and developing custom-designed LED bulbs and strips, along with bespoke circuit boards. ‘Creating your own technology is challenging but generates possibilities; we’re pushing boundaries as far as we can,’ he says.
The designs take lighting into new spheres: several explore ways in which intersecting acrylic and stainless-steel discs can simultaneously reveal and eclipse illumination. Light-refracting, spherical silhouettes alter with the viewing angle – ‘like a lunar eclipse’, says Broom – while concealed LED bulbs create a diffused, halo-like effect.
The collection includes the Tidal table lamp in polished chrome and opaque acrylic, the Aurora chandelier, which can be scaled from 40cm to a dramatic 1.5m diameter, and Orion, an elegant modular light with opaque acrylic and polished-metal elements, which can be customised to create your own constellation of reflected and refracted light. A star turn indeed.
Lee Broom is showing at Via Lovanio 6, 20121 Milan. leebroom.com