Reaching almost three metres in height, the Vitra Akari E Suspension Light is the tallest paper lantern in Vitra's iconic series of Akari Light Sculptures. The sheer scale of the Akari E amazes in its own right, but this sense of impressiveness escalates even further when one takes into account the amount of work that it takes to produce a single Akari lantern. Produced by hand in the Japanese city of Gifu, the Vitra Akari E Suspension Light is constructed using the same techniques that have been employed for generations by people who have dedicated their lives to the craft. The Akari E adds an immediate sense of splendor to any environment, and will surely stand as a statement piece for decades to come.
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).