With a breathtaking diameter of 88cm, the Vitra Akari 15A Suspension Light is sure to elevate any space in which it is placed.
The iconic form of the Akari light range stands as one of the most immediately recognisable in all of contemporary design. It is a design which has been produced by specialist expert crafts-people in the city of Gifu in Japan, which is considered to be the world’s capital of this type of lantern lighting. For nigh on seventy years the Akari lamp has come to define high-quality, hand-made, prestigious lighting design, and it is sure to stand the test of time for generations to come.
Isamu Noguchi was an American-Japanese designer who originally trained as a sculptor and brought a sculptural sensibility to everything he created: lighting, furniture, gardens and stage sets. He studied sculpture, after dropping out of medical school, in late 1920s New York and then in Paris as an assistant to Constantin Brancusi.
Noguchi designed a range of paper Akari lights throughout the 1950s and 1960s, alongside the popular organic furniture he made in curvy sculpted wood now part of the Vitra Collection, such as the Freeform Sofa and Coffee Table. He was equally prolific as a landscape architect; he recreated the ancient Buddhist stone gardens he had loved in Kyoto at Lever House in New York (1951), UNESCO in Paris (1951), the Yale campus (1960) and Jerusalem’s Israel Museum (1960).
