THE FLOWERS AWAKENING

 

Beneath the stone canopy that forms the nave of the Sagrada Família, I experienced what happens when an architect, guided by the geometry at work in nature, never slackens his effort in design while considering light as a material in its own right: the appearance of an atmosphere capable of making us believe in miracles.

 

 

Two years later, my collaboration with the painter Natacha Birds provided me with the opportunity to translate this sensory experience into a luminaire.

Our shared theme of the iris led me to appropriate Antonio Gaudí's approach, starting by revealing the trilateral symmetry that structures this flower: its three sepals, converted into a base, ensure the object's stability, while the petals, transformed into light diffusers, allow it to rise and radiate.

To give this lamp an extra soul, I focused on the notion of grace.

First envisioned in its feminine dimension, I translated it through continuous curves, sometimes convex, sometimes concave, suggesting the sensuality of a body; through areas of fragility that convey its delicacy; and through an aerial movement that gives the flower the sensation of escaping gravity.

The spiritual dimension of this notion of grace is expressed through a skillful layering of materials, intended to create an atmosphere conducive to contemplation, soft, enveloping, and subtly colored, like the sun piercing the mist in the early morning.

At the intersection of the living and the sacred, the IRIS lamp borrows its aesthetic vocabulary and tonality from nature, in order to connect our domestic space to the sensible world and its part of mystery.

Today, IRIS is part of a collection of objects called The Flowers Awakening, designed to perpetuate a design gesture that re-enchants our living spaces.

 

Romain Gratiot
Founder, Architect & Designer