Begonya pendant lamp by Øivind Slaatto for Carl Hansen & Søn

Carl Hansen & Søn presents Begonya – a new pendant lamp created in collaboration with award-winning designer Øivind Slaatto.

Begonya combines poetic design with advanced construction, giving equal weight to form and function.

The pendant’s elliptical silhouette and sculptural symmetry give the lamp a striking presence – both when lit and unlit. The lamp is launched in two sizes: Ø900 mm and Ø500 mm.

Begonya pendant Oivind Slaatto8

A pendant inspired by the logic of nature

Begonya stems from Øivind Slaatto’s fascination with nature’s structures, repetitions and inherent order. The form takes its

cue from the begonia flower but is not a literal representation – rather an interpretation of the principles that characterise the flower’s natural growth and balance.

“I never try to copy nature, but to learn from it,” says Øivind Slaatto. “When you work with principles that already exist in nature, a kind of truth emerges in the expression. ‘Begonya’ is deliberately spelled with a ‘y’ to mark the difference between the flower and the lamp – between the natural and the man-made. Begonya feels alive because its form encompasses both predictability and unpredictability, much like the patterns that bring us calm in water, forests or fire.”

Where craftsmanship and technology meet

Begonya is constructed around a complex internal aluminium framework with a warm, golden finish that lends the lamp a sophisticated glow. The shade is crafted from a lightweight, translucent material that emits a glare-free, downward-directed light, while also diffusing gently into the surrounding space, creating depth and an atmospheric play of shadows.

Each Begonya shade is assembled by hand by experienced craftsmen in an advanced process involving 168 carefully calibrated joining points. The production of a single lamp can take up to seven hours – a testament to the uncompromising focus on quality, precision and craftsmanship.

For Øivind Slaatto, the collaboration with Carl Hansen & Søn was a natural extension of his design philosophy:

“I have always known Carl Hansen & Søn as a company with a deep respect for craftsmanship and materials, combined with the courage to invest in new technology,” he explains. “Begonya could only become a reality because all these elements came together in perfect harmony.”

Knud Erik Hansen, CEO and third-generation owner of Carl Hansen & Søn, adds:
“With Begonya, we are expanding our lighting collection with a design that beautifully unites the poetry of nature with the precision and material understanding that characterise our craftsmanship. At Carl Hansen & Søn, we value collaborations where tradition meets innovation, and Begonya is a fine example of exactly that.”

Begonya pendant Oivind Slaatto

Dimensions (cm)
OS111 Begonya pendant D900: diameter 90, height 55,5
OS111 Begonya pendant D500: diameter 50, height 31,4

Materials Aluminium, non-woven polyethylene

Oivind Slaatto

Øivind Slaatto (b. 1978) is a Danish designer known for his poetic, intuitive and deeply logical approach to design, often guided by the structures found in nature. His work spans a wide range of disciplines, though he is particularly recognised for his work with light, where he combines technical precision with a remarkable sensitivity to atmosphere, harmony and human perception.

Slaatto was born in Ulm, Germany, and grew up in Copenhagen, where both music and design played a central role in his life from an early age. In his childhood home, there was no television, and white paper therefore became his window to the world. Here, he drew aeroplanes, built paper constructions and folded everything from projectiles to advanced paper aircraft.

This blend of imagination, ingenuity and immersion initially led him to study music at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. Even there, however, the blackboards in the practice rooms were more often filled with sketches and inventions than with sheet music, and gradually it became clear to him that his future lay elsewhere. “It gradually became clear that I should apply to design school – and, to my own surprise, I got in,” he says.

Music has never left him. It remains a fundamental layer in his approach to design, informing a compositional and rhythmic way of working based on iteration, exploration and ‘the art of practice’ – much like refining a piece of music until it reaches its purest form.

In 2011, Slaatto established his own studio in Copenhagen, where he develops designs grounded in a single guiding philosophy: to create the most logical and truthful result possible. He does not seek the spectacular, but the clear – designs that feel immediately right because the principles behind them are rooted in nature itself. He emphasises that he does not copy nature but rather learns from it: its balance between predictability and unpredictability, its organic logic, and the forces that shape form, rhythm and structure.

Slaatto’s working method is experimental and hands-on. He draws a clear distinction between creativity and analysis, alternating between intuitive creation and reflective evaluation. Prototyping plays a central role: ideas must be tested, experienced and challenged. He describes his process as a continuous movement between iteration and insight, where materials and geometry inform and influence one another.

In his work with light – a field that has become both his speciality and his passion – Slaatto focuses on minimising glare while enhancing the practical function of light. For him, good lighting is not merely a matter of brightness, but of reducing contrast, creating visual comfort and shaping atmosphere.

Slaatto has received awards from, among others, the Danish Arts Foundation, the CES Innovation Awards, Elle Decor and the Design Awards, and his work is represented in the permanent collection of Designmuseum Danmark.