Seeds of change

Patricia Urquiola's latest creation for Flos is a sustainable lighting system featuring organic shapes inspired by the fruit and flowers of almond trees

- LAURA MAY TODD

When architect and designer Patricia Urquiola debuted her 'Serena' table lamp for Italian lighting brand Flos at 2015's Euroluce, the Salone del Mobile's biannual lighting exhibition, it was an instant classic. Though the industry attention seemed to indicate otherwise, it was not, in fact, the only work of hers on display. Suspended from the ceiling of the stark white Ron Gilad-designed booth was another design, a prototype that never made it into production.

It was an experimental lighting system that played with the same aesthetics as 'Serena', which resembles a petal curving around a well of light, reflecting and diffusing its glow. But instead of the table lamp's short vertical body, the hanging light was formed of willowy branch-like stems that hovered over the exhibition floor like the canopy of a tropical forest. 'At the time, the technology was just not advanced enough for such a slim and simplified project to be produced properly at a large scale,' recalls Urquiola. Unwilling to compromise on the form or the unique modular construction of the prototype, she reluctantly left the idea on the back burner for several years. 'As an architect, I knew I needed this kind of modular piece, which we were not able to resolve when we made 'Serena'", explains Urquiola. But she continued to envision the prototype in the hotel lobbies and Haute restaurants she and her studio designed in the following years. And it was the first thing she thought of when Flos approached her again in 2019 to reprise their collaboration.