Coppia Lamp – Gubi

Vibeke Fonnesberg Schmidt

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Coppia Lamp Gubi – Vibeke Fonnesberg Schmidt

Named after the Italian word for “couple”, the Coppia table lamp by Vibeke Fonnesberg Schmidt stands on the border between design and sculpture. Coppia lies at the intersection of art, design and craft, and finds beauty in playing with geometry.

True to its name, Coppia is a design that celebrates pairs, encounters and dualities. In Coppia, Fonnesberg Schmidt combines two materials - stainless steel and Plexiglas - in a table lamp with a double shade. Elegantly shaped, the lamp is made up of two sets of Plexiglas discs of different sizes, fixed inside a curved stainless steel band, which helps to maintain the lamp's shape.

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Coppia marks the first use of a new material for GUBI - plexiglass, or acrylic, which has become Fonnesberg Schmidt's signature as a lighting designer.

Lighter than glass, this material can be easily cut into almost any shape and molded in a multitude of different colors. Adjusting the translucency of Plexiglas influences the diffusion and intensity of light.

In Coppia, the discs soften and diffuse the light from the central bulbs, creating a beautiful reflection on the steel surface. By combining light, form and material, Coppia rises to the level of sculpture, influencing ambience through color and form.

Although distinctly modern and almost industrial in expression, Coppia's combination of materials and the quality of light through Plexiglas give the design a touch of 1950s and 1960s style.

Simple and minimalist yet playful and decorative, the lamp owes its distinctive character to the meeting of materials and the resulting contrasts - the hard, matte surface of brushed metal against the colorful, glossy finish of Plexiglas.

As usual, Fonnesberg Schmidt took geometry as her starting point for Coppia. Fascinated by natural curves since her days working with porcelain, she wanted to explore the meeting point between the perfection of laser-cutting and the harmony of the circle's shape.

She wanted to explore the meeting point between the laser-cut perfection of the Plexiglas circle and the organic lines formed by a folded sheet of stainless steel.

For Fonnesberg Schmidt, it's important that the lamp arouses the observer's curiosity, encouraging him or her to move the light around and explore it from different perspectives, just as one would with a sculpture.

A solid, sturdy base allows Coppia to be positioned in two orientations, balanced on the larger or smaller disc, and makes it usable as both a table and floor lamp, moving easily from desk to bedside, from shelf to windowsill, as required.

With no glue or other adhesives used in the lamp's construction, Coppia is designed to be disassembled and can easily be separated from its components for recycling or repair - or even to replace the Plexiglas, if a different color is desired.

Dimensions 50,5 x 13,5 x H42 cm Cord 2m Light source E14/E12
Materials Hardened and brushed stainless steel, Plexiglas, gold textile cord

Ivory and Olive

Ivory and Clover

Ivory and Blush

Vibeke Fonnesberg Schmidt

Fonnesberg Schmidt was born in Denmark, but her creative career began in Japan, where she studied ceramics. She continued her studies in Copenhagen, at the Danish School of Design, where she honed her porcelain skills and embarked on a successful career as a studio potter.

Ceramics eventually proved limited for Fonnesberg, so she began to explore other possibilities. She turned to a material that allowed her to express her sculptural sensibility: Plexiglas. In her studio in central Copenhagen, she handcrafts unique sculptural lighting and bespoke chandeliers, most often combining Plexiglas discs with metal fixings, usually brass.

Inspired by the use of geometry in architecture throughout the ages, her approach is methodical, systemic and exploratory. She generally takes geometry as her starting point.Plexiglas proved to be the ideal material for his practice. It's lighter than glass, can be cut into any shape and cast in almost any color or level of translucency. This versatility gives the designer an unrivalled level of control over the color and pattern of the light - with an added dimension. of the color and pattern of the light - with an added dimension when the light is switched off.

For inspiration, Fonnesberg Schmidt turns to the works of artists from every century, from the earliest such as Rogier van der Weyden and Italian masters like Piero della Francesca and Giotto, to modern greats like Vilhelm Lundstrøm and Bridget Riley.

Although trained in the Danish design tradition, Fonnesberg Schmidt's work clearly shows the influence of time spent in Italy - where she collaborates with the Nilufar gallery and has already exhibited with the Dimore gallery - and the instinctive, highly graphic approach to design that characterizes the Italian modernist tradition.