HOBA by Foscarini: the charm of the ‘perfect imperfection’ in a new collection of blown glass lamps.
Designed by Ludovica Serafini and Roberta Palomba, Hoba experiments with shape and is composed of blown glass. This new design draws inspiration from the Hoba meteorite, which crash-landed on Earth in 1920. With a purposeful asymmetry and irregularity, every side of Hoba projects a different opaque glow. Just as shadows form in the corners of a room, varying shadows are found on Hoba’s curved surface, creating an air of dimension and intrigue.
An anti-geometric lamp, HOBA is a new family of blown glass lamps made of constantly different pieces, serially produced but with the unique characteristics of things made by hand. A new outcome of the long-term research conducted by Ludovica Serafini +Roberto Palomba with Foscarini to drive experimentation on blown glass beyond traditional forms and methods.
To describe Hoba it is necessary to rely on terms related to nature. The new family of Foscarini lamps designed by Ludovica + Roberto Palomba, made in opaque rusticated blown glass, resembles stones that have fallen to earth, deformed by speed and crystallised in the moment of their flight.
Not by chance, the new collection takes its name from the Hoba meteorite, the heaviest ever to fall onto our planet, which landed in Namibia, and was discovered on the Hoba West farm in 1920.
Asymmetrical and irregular in form, HOBA stems from the desire to create an industrially produced lamp, but with the characteristics of a crafted object. It is a family of similar but always variable, unique but repeatable objects.
Observed from all sides, Hoba seems to constantly change thanks to its vitreous surface with gentle hollows. To permit serial production, but with results that conserve the unique, slightly varying identity of each crafted piece, an original open-die process has been developed, in which the skill and expertise of the master glassmaker play a fundamental role.
HOBA is an ancestral form we seem to have always known, but with a surprising aspect: a perfect-imperfect that usually finds little room in the overall design landscape.
“To bring workmanship that is usually done by specialised glassmakers into a context of industrial reproduction makes it possible to create decorative lamps with a forceful personality”, says Ludovica Serafini. “The aim is to give the people who choose this lamp a unique sensation, such as only a crafted object can bring, but also with the affordability provided by manufacturing in a series”.
“To arrive at this working process, which ensures that no one lamp is ever exactly like another, Foscarini has conducted extensive experimentation, relying on its glassmaking know-how and trying out a range of different options”, Roberto Palomba explains.
Hoba is a complete family of lamps that offer different perspectives. It comes in suspension, table, wall and ceiling versions, with the sizes small, midi, medium and large Hoba’s light is warm and enveloping, perfect for illuminating spaces on its own or in compositions that also take advantage of the four available sizes.
