The duality of light: Hollands Licht

Even with its main purpose temporarily dormant, an unlit light can also be a pivotal part of the interior landscape, helping to direct atmosphere and style. By day, in one way, and by night, another. As daylight diminishes, though, with the flick of a switch, artificial light can transform space and the elements within it, previously hidden in darkness, into artistic centrepieces.

The Hollands Licht brand produces innovative and functional but daring lighting fixtures with sustainability at its core. Rob Cornelissen, founder of Hollands Licht, states ‘good lighting provides well-being and adds an extra layer to interior design.’ At just 15 years old, the brand is a beacon for youth, giving emerging Dutch talent a stage alongside more established national design icons. The contemporary brand presents its collection of locally-produced, highly sculptural yet functional luminaires in their best light, so to speak, as well as in more honest low-light environments. The combination provides a complete picture of the comfortably-lit landscapes they create.

Have you ever looked at a child’s drawing and thought to yourself: ‘Why couldn’t I have designed that?’ The effortless simplicity, the innocence of form and freedom of imagination. With that same unsullied functionality, Hollands Licht’s Lotek floor lamp proves you don’t need to be technologically superior to be innovative.

Perhaps the most lasting legacy of its designer, Benno Premsela, Lotek features a modest, uncomplicated architecture reminiscent of scaffolding structures. With that simple but stable construction, the diffusing 30x30cm rice paper cube – shrinking or expanding by a third for the respective XS and XL spin-offs – can rise from its tabletop 30cm, through the floors and up to a lofty 120cm.

Famously minimalist, Premsela was synonymous with transparent, no-nonsense design, ‘Design is a serving profession.’ he said, ‘You have to help people solve their problems by formulating them clearly.’ When darkness arrives and Lotek’s environment changes, the little light’s thin legs start to bleed into the background. The effect transforms Lotek from a well-engineered stilt house, into the softly glowing orb of a paper lantern, floating through its dusky room.

At the opposite end of the scale, sits the engaging installation artwork that is Vapour, from designers Iris van Daalen and Ruben Thier. A tube of shatterproof acrylic glass is etched with a mathematically calculated pattern that disperses LED light from opposing ends of the tube. The laser-cut pattern spreads the exit of light evenly over its entire length, while adding an artistic aesthetic to its unsheltered form. It’s only when wrapped in its pliable nylon sleeve, however, that Vapour’s adjustable personality really shines.

The full complexity of the piece can only be seen with the arrival of light. It transforms the horizontal Vapour from a sculptural but static mathematical form into a textured, undulating ophidian one. And it’s this optical illusion of seeing light through the sleeve that creates the constantly shimmering, flowing patterns in the object’s skin. Alternatively, a vertical vortexing Vapour hovers, like a sensuous candle flame, flickering and dancing in its own sultry one-light show.

Meanwhile across town… A single powder-coated steel sheet gives sanctuary to a custom-designed LED light source. The story of the Flybye light, written by designer Ernst Koning, sees a figurative and allegorical rooftop enclose and protect the visual spaces above the tabletops, worktops and desktops. While in its lit form, Flybye excels in functionality, birthing a bright but warm directional task light for dining, working or cooking, with a smooth and even distribution from end to end. Flybye can alternate its look with five attractively-coloured Divina MD covers from Kvadrat, combining with a perforated surface that allows enough escaped light to subtly highlight everyone at the table.

Whether formed from simple shapes, materials and designs, or from complex innovation with contemporary materials, craftsmanship and style, Hollands Licht’s imaginative yet reflective split-personality luminaires are two sides of the same coin. One is an artwork with a sculptural, minimalist beauty, but when the sun goes down and the lights come up, they become the artist, playing and experimenting with light on a three-dimensional canvas.

© Architonic