City lights: Bover

The beautiful light of Barcelona not only radiates through its sunshine, yet there is also a lightness to the city’s way of life. From its joyful public squares, to the organic curves of Gaudí’s architecture, and the energy of the beach, when it comes to this city, variety is the spice of life.

Born and bred in Barcelona, lighting brand Bover breathes this way of life through design; softly illuminating terraces and squares; guiding us through pockets of gardens; joining us at the beach as dusk sets; and accompanying us late into the night with friends. Designed to keep up, the Outdoor Collection is decorative, versatile and durable, and suitable for both small intimate spaces and large public spaces.

The Mediterranean lifestyle is in the DNA of Joana Bover, founder of Bover. She was born in a small fishing village near Barcelona, and spent her holidays at her grandparents' farm in Mallorca where everyday was spent outside enjoying the natural light. Bover seeks to recreate the beauty and consistency of the light that we experience in the daytime.

To achieve this, Bover uses combinations of craft, materials and technology to temper and shape light. Traditional Mediterranean basket-weaving techniques for example, seen in families of products such as the Amphora, Fora and Syra create a decorative design and comfortable glow, yet weather resistant synthetic wicker and durable aluminium structures make them durable for indoor and outdoor settings alike.

Barcelona is a city of many types of different outdoor settings – from the Montjuic Park, to the tree-lined boulevards, and the famous beach. Bover’s lighting complement and interact with these natural places, yet is also subtle enough to let their magic shine. Inspired by the shape of a sea urchin, Garota’s soft balls of diffused light, available in a freestanding or garland edition, can illuminate large spaces such as the beach. The Atticus bollard edition guides people through nature, while the Elipse lamp system can be hung from tree branches.

The beauty of nature in human hands is perhaps captured best through the architecture of Antoni Gaudí, synonymous with Barcelona. He crafted sensual lines that curled into turrets, window frames and stairways. It is with the same spirit that Bover translates organic forms into design using durable modern materials and high quality manufacturing techniques.

The Cornet light, for example, which nods to falling petals through its form, is made of high density polyurethane. Designed as a ‘connector’, this light is ideal for linking and guiding people through public and residential spaces, so while decorative, it also had to be very resilient. Similarly robust yet sculptural qualities can also be found in the Moai, a light made of reinforced concrete with aluminium profiles and dimmable LED lights. It is notable for its concave shape that distributes light evenly across the ground.

It’s hard to find balance in a city as alive as Barcelona, where inhabitants and visitors are pulled between thrills, colours, and noise. Bover’s lighting bring seamless continuity between indoor and outdoor experiences – specially appealing to Barcelona’s restaurants and bars that flow from atmospheric interiors, out onto terraces and squares and require strong durable designs.

Echoing the functionality of 20th century industrial factory lighting, Bover’s Platet lights are primarily made of metal. New for 2021, they feature a strong metal arm that attaches to the wall, and an enamelled metal disk that casts light downwards. It is very simple in its execution, yet also beautifully familiar, conjuring a nostalgia for the past.

Just like the city of Barcelona, Bover’s Outdoor Collection finds a unique harmony between past and present, city and beach, architecture and nature – all while evoking the convivial spirit of the Mediterranean.

© Architonic