American-Japanese designer Noguchi fused the two cultures to which he was most exposed to exceptional levels, with the Akari Light Sculpture series arguably the greatest example of this. The Vitra Akari 24N Table Lamp is amongst the most memorable and pleasing configurations of the Akari range of paper lanterns, of which Noguchi is said to have designed over 200. The lanterns have been made for almost 70 years in Gifu, Japan, a town famous the world over for producing paper lanterns, by master craftpeople, many of whom have dedicated their lives to perfecting their craft. The Vitra Akari 24N Table Lamp stands at 58cm tall, making it both a very manageable and handsome piece, but one which will capture the eyes and imaginations of anyone lucky enough to share space with it.
Isamu Noguchi was an American-Japanese designer who originally trained as a sculptor and brought a sculptural sensibility to everything he created: lighting, furniture, gardens and stage sets. He studied sculpture, after dropping out of medical school, in late 1920s New York and then in Paris as an assistant to Constantin Brancusi.
Noguchi designed a range of paper Akari lights throughout the 1950s and 1960s, alongside the popular organic furniture he made in curvy sculpted wood now part of the Vitra Collection, such as the Freeform Sofa and Coffee Table. He was equally prolific as a landscape architect; he recreated the ancient Buddhist stone gardens he had loved in Kyoto at Lever House in New York (1951), UNESCO in Paris (1951), the Yale campus (1960) and Jerusalem’s Israel Museum (1960).