While the Akari Lighting Sculpture series has been around since the 1950s they remain a perennial favourite of modern design enthusiasts, such is the timeless nature of Noguchi's iconic designs. This iteration of the paper lantern, the Vitra Akari BB3-33S, is amongst the tallest of all of the pieces in the range, standing at 1.7 metres tall. The unique crescent shape echoes the iconography in Noguchi's desirable stamp that features on all items across the line, and makes for a fascinating and immediately impressive piece for any environment.
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).