As one of the great masters of 20th-century industrial design, Paavo Tynell is known as ‘the man who illuminated Finland’ with a range of striking pendant lights that feature the same simple conical form. The 1972 Pendant Light, now produced by GUBI, features a pleated bamboo shade affixed to a wire frame and linen liner. This casts a diffused, ambient glow around the lamp, while also throwing light upward through the gaps in the bamboo slats.
Tynell also incorporated the signature brass details that made him famous into the design, subtly complimenting the warm tone of the natural wood. His background as a metalsmith is evident, gently accenting the light’s other organic elements.
Paavo Tynell was a Finnish born industrial designer who specialised in lighting design. He started his career as a Tinsmith in Helsinki, developing quickly into a talented Blacksmith. Along with fellow designers, Tynell set up Taito AB in 1918, a metal working company producing industrial lighting and other metal objects for various industries. By 1930 the company decided to focus their efforts solely on industrial lighting, such was their expertise and reputation within this field. This led Tynell on a lifetime career of lighting design, eventually producing many iconic designs that last to this day, such as the 1965 Pendant Light, now produced by Danish interiors experts, Gubi.
