Kaia Lighting has been shortlisted for Lighting Piece Award in The International Design and Architecture Awards 2021.

Kaia Lighting’s Glow Collection fuses blown glass, raw organic paper, and brass to strike an imperfect balance between organic and geometric, natural and artificial.

The Glow Collection distils the grandeur of ‘Inner Glow’ – Kaia Lighting’s sculptural lighting collaboration with French designer Sophie Dries – into a functional and compact form that suits the modern home. The design chooses juxtaposing elements and shapes for a dynamic piece that alludes to the synchrony of fabrication and nature.

It captures the essence of Kaia, bringing together the finest artisans, designers and independent suppliers from European countries who each champion environmentally conscious design and the cyclical use of natural materials. Organic papier-mâché was sourced from Paper Factor, an atelier based in Puglia with a rich history of repairing church statues with the ancient material and technique. Dries’ choice of paper is an evolution of the papier-mâché process and has a raw, textural quality that resembles stone. Glass is custom-made for Kaia at an artisanal glassmaker in Germany’s Bavarian forest with more than 400 years of experience creating one-of-a-kind pieces.

Layered onto these mouth-blown glass eggs, the paper appears to ‘grow’ and take on a life of its own. It diffuses and dampens the lustre of each glass element. The clean lines and geometric decoration of Viennese Secessionist architecture were the inspiration behind the chandelier, which is constructed from polished and rounded Kaia glass in subtle contrast to raw and delicately etched papier-mâché.

Kaia Lighting and Sophie Dries’ collaboration personifies the mutual concessions between natural and artificial. In contrasting the sharp geometricity with the raw and organic, Dries sought to figuratively reflect the complexities of humans’ relationship with the environment, and suggest the possibility of harmonious coexistence.

Kaia Lighting

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