This week and next, Studio Kipsari and Aalto Studios are playing host to Valoa!, an exhibition of artfully-crafted student-designed lamps from the Design Tools course, led by Enni Äijälä. These designers are first year BA Design students, and haven’t yet decided what discipline of design they’ll focus on in their studies, so the lamps serve as a grounds of experimentation for the young designers, according to Äijälä.
As a source of inspiration, each student was assigned a different culturally-significant Helsinki restaurant. The lamps embody the various qualities of each restaurant, and enable the designers to see how thematic elements can affect creative work. Fittingly, the lamps now hang in the Studio Kipsari space and Aalto Studios’ gallery at Otakaari 7B.
Äijälä challenged the students in the course to work with small-scale production methods and budgets, so in addition to the practical realization of their lamp designs, students learned how to work with creative and budgetary constraints. These restraints paired with the students’ talent has led to a huge variety of lamp styles, from woven wooden shapes to industrial metallic shades, each with its own unique personality that stands out from the others.
See the Light
Valoa! is open now until next Friday, 2.3. Pop into Otakaari 7B to check out the lamps for yourself, and stay for a bite to eat or delicious coffee from our friends at Studio Kipsari!