Hood Mini by Form Us With Love – ateljé Lyktan

Hood designed by Form Us With Love

“We got the idea for Hood when we needed a sound absorber above our conference table in the new studio,” says the design group Form Us With Love.

They created a prototype that combined light and sound absorption with a visually compelling expression, resulting in our product family Hood, consisting of the larger variant Hood and the smaller one called Hood Mini.

The features make the luminaire an ideal solution for today’s open office landscapes, which are also constantly evolving, facilitated by Hood’s modular design. The size of the fixture can easily be expanded or reduced as needed, and it can be used as a single fixture or built into linear systems.

A renewed identity

Hood is a luminaire cherished for its multifaceted features: it provides quality light, pleasant sound absorption, and a decorative expression to interior spaces. A couple of years ago, we curiously examined Hood and asked ourselves how we could enhance it in yet another aspect: material. The luminaire’s shade made of molded felt sparked an in-depth exploration to discover new raw materials that could improve our product.

Hood is now acquiring a renewed identity through the use of the natural material wool. By incorporating this material, we enhance the lamp’s properties, create unique textures in the shades, and, at the same time, take a step forward in our sustainability efforts.

We create something beautiful from the wool that no one else wants

Wool is a natural material with many positive characteristics: it is durable, moldable, biodegradable, and also fire-resistant due to its high nitrogen and water content. All these qualities made wool the obvious choice for us, and it quickly became one of our top priorities to use Swedish wool. This shortens the value chain, reducing the footprint on our planet, especially considering that Swedish wool is an underutilized resource. The thick fleece of the sheep is sheared twice a year, but barely half of the wool is used. Over 50% of wool is burned or discarded, while a significant amount is imported from abroad. Through our work with Swedish wool as a material, we hope to contribute to a positive change.

Wool from Swedish Sheep

Our requirements for the wool raw material’s fineness are generally low; for example, we can accept that a certain amount of organic material remains in the raw material without causing issues in manufacturing or affecting the final product’s quality.

We value wool as a living material that provides us with lively expressions and interesting textures in the lampshades. If the sheep wishes to leave a small personal signature, such as a delicate straw, in the molded felt, it’s completely fine with us and only adds to the charm of having a shade made from wool from Swedish sheep.

With care for the well-being of the sheep

We take pride in our collaboration with Nordifa and Västkustens Ullinsamling, who passionately work to reduce wool wastage in Sweden. Västkustens Ullinsamling collects wool from farms spanning from Ystad to Borlänge, providing us with the opportunity to trace the wool from each Hood shade down to the farm level. Their profession as sheep shearers allows them to bring the wool raw material directly home from the farms they visit in their work.

When it comes to the quality of the wool, it is clearly linked to the health and well-being of the sheep. For example, a sheep with poor nutrition has very fragile wool fibers that are challenging to handle. Västkustens Ullinsamling’s consideration for healthy and happy sheep is the reason they set high standards for the wool they collect.