Happy 20th Birthday, Double Bubble by Eero Aarnio!

On June 12, 2003, the Double Bubble lamp was first presented at the opening of a retrospective exhibition of Eero Aarnio’s 50-year career. The Double Bubble with it’s unprecedented and original shape was an immediate hit, just as Eero had predicted in an interview with Muoto magazine in 2003:

“I am really happy with the Double Bubble”, Aarnio says. “I know, I feel which product will be successful”, he smiles and looks triumphantly in the eyes.”

The Double Bubble was originally intended to be made of glass, and early mouth-blown glass prototypes can still be found in Aarnio’s studio today. However, the challenging shape proved too much for that manufacturing method, and a better solution was found with Melaja Ltd’s rotational moulding technology.

The polyethylene material filters the light in a soft and even way, which is an essential part of the lamp’s charm. Plastic as a material is also light and durable – properties that have surely aided the success of the Double Bubble.

Driven by the popularity of the Double Bubble and thanks to Aarnio’s inexhaustible wealth of ideas, the co-operation between Eero Aarnio and Melaja Ltd has grown into the Studio Eero Aarnio collection, which today consists of over twenty gems of Finnish design. All the products in the collection are made in Riihimäki, Finland and finished with love by hand.