There is something zen-like about products that require no hardware to assemble (we’re looking at you, IKEA). It’s as if those materials and parts were created for the sole purpose of existing as the components of a seamless assembly.
The Lo1 lamp from Chilean industrial designer Emmanuel Gonzalez is one of those products.
With a brief to create a wooden lamp with as little material as possible and without screws or glue, he first looked at the designs of the Bauhaus movement for functional form inspiration. But in an interesting twist, he looked towards the design of Japanese woodworkers for hardware-free joinery that would ultimately hold the design together.
“I first observed the designs of the Bauhaus movement,” explains Gonzalez. “Which are among my favorites because of their elemental, unpretentious, and functional forms. But when it came to the actual assembly, I looked at the work of traditional Japanese wood crafters who have a huge variety of assemblies. By joining these two concepts after several sketches the lamp Lo1 is born.”
Featuring just five pieces of wood, a glass shade, and a simple electrical system, each part of the Lo1 stands out on its own—yet creates a perfectly simple and versatile tabletop lamp.
