Wingårdh Architects and Ingegerd Råman launch a lighting collection for Örsjö

It all began as a joint project but culminated in two interrelated collections.

Wingårdh chose leather, Ingegerd Råman chose paper.

Now the product of their collaboration is being manufactured in Småland County by Örsjö Lighting.

nij orsjo Boa Pendel Dark 01 jub

As two of the leading figures of Swedish design and architecture, Gert Wingårdh and Ingegerd Råman both have extensive lists of award-winning and successful projects and products to their names. Together with Sara Helder from Wingårdh they form a trio that has collaborated on a number of projects, including the Aula Medica and the Swedish Embassy in Washington.

That collaboration has now led to two unique product series, Gert Wingårdh and Sara Helder’s Boa and Ingegerd Råman’s Virvel. Boa is fully upholstered in leather with a metal base; Virvel is made from a folded piece of circular paper.

The Wingårdh series comes in four different types: two floor lamps, an uplight, and a reading lamp. Also in development now are a pendant and a wall lamp for the same series.

“I wanted to make a lamp out of leather. I don’t think anyone’s done it before,” says Gert Wingårdh. “I wanted to make use of leather and its inherent qualities—the simplicity and the iconic feeling. There is danger in the material—a feeling of rock and roll.”

Its prominent funnel shape recurs in each model, and the leather cladding comes in multiple colors, including black, cognac, and natural.

“This lamp is also about craftsmanship and quality,” says Wingårdh’s Sara Helder. “The visible stitching gives it both character and pattern. The funnel is metal, clad in leather, with the light source recessed a bit. It’s a bold form, but it doesn’t take up a ton of space. It gives a good directional light with a hidden light source and minimal glare, and at the same time I can imagine that it can either camouflage itself in its surroundings or stand out.”

lam 3

Ingegerd Råman’s Virvel is a series of two ceiling lamps manufactured in circle-shaped folded paper sourced from the Lessebo handmade paper mill in Småland County.

“This is the first time I’ve worked with paper,” says Råman. “I have always wanted to do it, and now it’s possible thanks to the new LED lighting technology.”

The material has many possibilities, the number of potential folds almost unlimited. For now there are two models in production, but several more are in development, including a table lamp.

“There is a particular kind of beauty in the thin, shear paper,” says Råman. “And then I’ve always liked the character of the material: there’s a transience about it that appeals to me. There are still an infinite number of ways to fold it, of which we’re only showing two here.”