Neue Räume Zurich 2011: Rhombus by Michael Koch for Illuminartis

We must start this post with a small admission.

We lied to Illuminartis managing director Thomas Germann.

It was however a very necessary lie.

In short, Thomas asked us what we thought of their lamps; and we said we weren’t really lamp people.

The truth is that after two weeks of non-stop design shows our collective cache was full and we were simply unable to process new information at any sort of useful rate. Our brains were full. But we didn’t want to bore the poor man with our lives.

Sorry.

In reality we’re always on the look out for good, innovative contemporary lighting design.

And we liked Rhombus by Michael Koch.

And not just because with its slimmed down and ameliorated ’80s warehouse feeling it fitted perfectly to the Neue Räume location.

Neue Räume Zurich 2011: Rhombus by Michael Koch for Illuminartis

Constructed by hand in Switzerland, Rhombus is in essence composed of 48 LEDs positioned on the outer edge of an aluminium frame.

A specially designed diffuser not only generates a very pleasant illumination, but also means that your not likely to blind yourself if you look at it from the wrong angle.

The importance of that fact currently being very poetically rammed home to us everyday as our own table lamp blinds us every couple of minutes thanks to a badly designed shade.

Rhombus comes in a pendant and floor version, is dimmable, and thanks to the use of modern LEDs promises around 20 years of low cost, high quality lighting. And with its very modern, finger-based, mode of use, you’re kids will be able to turn it on and off. Unlike those old skool switch based devices of yore.

Awarded a Good Design Award in 2008 by the Chicago Athenaeum and nominated for the Designpreis Deutschland 2010 Rhombus by Michael Koch for Illuminartis is simply one of those uncomplicated objects that it’s difficult not to admit liking…. You know what we mean!

Here is a short film that explains it all a little bit more. The commentary is only in German. But the pictures are very self-explanatory.