Fans of Danish lighting design will surely rejoice this March, as Louis Poulsen is due to launch a bunch of delicious newbies to three of its iconic collections. Whether you prefer the creations of Poul Henningsen, Vilhelm Lauritzen, or Verner Panton, you are truly in for a treat!
IN MARCH 2022, Danish brand Louis Poulsen will launch several new lighting designs to its most beloved collections. New luminaires will be added to the playful Panthella series, Poul Henningsen's iconic PH collection as well as the VL series originally designed for Copenhagen's Radiohus. All of the new arrivals will also be available at Finnish Design Shop in March. And stay tuned – little birdes told us there might be more new items coming later this spring.
The comeback of gray Panthella
The distinctively expressive Panthella luminaire is re-released in its original color, with a gray opal shade and a high-luster chrome foot. Designed by Verner Panton, the lamp's gray, translucent shade makes the light pleasantly soft, while the chromed trumpet stand reflects both light and the lamp's surroundings, emphasizing the luminaire's sculptural design language. The color combination is available in the Panthella 320, Panthella Mini, and Panthella Portable table lamps, which are smaller versions of the original Panthella from 1971.
Full-sized PH 3/3 and PH 5/5
Created by Danish designer legend Poul Henningsen, the PH collection will expand with the so-called “full-size” luminaires PH 3/3 and PH 5/5. They are designed to be particularly glare-free and are therefore best suited for tall spaces – whereas the so-called “hybrid sizes”, such as PH 3/2, are designed to be hung low, preferably over a table. The new luminaires are also more rounded than the hybrid sizes.
If the words “full-size” and “hybrid-size” sound confusing to you, here’s a little reminder of how the series is named: all PH luminaires are named according to the sizes of their three-piece shades so that the first number in the name indicates the diameter of the top shade. In the full-size luminaires, the latter figure suggests that the lower shades are designed for this particular size in a ratio of approximately 3:2:1. For example, in the PH 5/5 luminaire, the diameter of the upper shade is 50 cm, the center shade 31 cm, and the lowest shade 16.5 cm.
In the hybrid luminaires, the lower shades are actually designed for a smaller top shade. In the PH 3/2 luminaire, for example, the two lower shades are not designed for a 30 cm shade, but for a 20 cm shade. So the top shade is always significantly larger than the lower ones.
An old radio lamp: VL Studio
A new wall lamp, VL Studio, will be added to the VL collection designed by Vilhelm Lauritzen. The adorable little luminaire consists of a matte black or brass hemisphere and an opal glass dome forming the other side of the ball, with three layers of glass filtering the light pleasantly and evenly. VL Studio will also be presented as floor and table lamp versions based on the original wall lamp.
Like the other luminaires in the collection, VL Studio was originally designed in the 1940s for Copenhagen's Radiohuset, the Danish radio house, whose architecture and interior design was created by Lauritzen as a gesamtkunstwerk. The luminaire is named after how it was originally used in the building: VL Studio was used outside the broadcast studios to show whether a broadcast was on or not.
Louis Poulsen's new collection will arrive to Finnish Design Shop in March 2022.
See also:
• All lamps by Louis Poulsen >
Text: Emmi Ratilainen Images: Louis Poulsen