Adrian Lawson Recycled Pendant Lighting

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  • 2017

  • Product
    Furniture and Lighting

Designed By:

Commissioned By:

Adrian Lawson

Designed In:

Australia

This pendant shade range is the result of seeing wooden venetian blinds being discarded around my local neighborhood. I have always been fascinated by recycling so I asked myself the question what alternative use they might have.

This has long been part of my design philosophy as I was bought up on a remote Scottish island where you had to make the best of what was at your disposal.

However as a designer I wanted the final product’s form to be appealing and desirable and to take on its new intended function without revealing its past in any obvious manner.

The product was no longer a venetian blind it was now a pendant light with no ambiguity to its intended function.


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  • CHALLENGE
  • SOLUTION
  • IMPACT

  • The main feature and benefit of the pendant light range is that they are made using recycled wooden venetian blinds. It does in some way restrict the design of the lights as you have to work within the dimensions of the available materials. For example the length of the wooden slats and where the holes for the blind cords are situated can place limitations on the design. Another limitation was the width of the wooden venetian blind slats which varies to some degree. This needed to be taken into consideration when making them compatible with our structural slat rings, but also allowing for a range of pendants from re-purposed wooden venetian blinds.

  • A key design feature of the pendants is that it can be flat packed, streamlining the shipping process. With that in mind the pendant light had to be designed to be easily assembled. The key feature that made this possible was the design of the structural slat ring, whereby the wooden slats click securely into place at both ends with just a slight amount of pressure. The diffuser took several attempts until a design was reached where even the least technically capable customer can connect its interlocking tabs, this was important as it needed to be sent out disassembled in the flat pack. All the packaging can be recycled and the pendants can be easily dismantled and recycled, making this a sustainable product.

  • The slat ring was designed to be used across the range of pendants, and future table and floor lamps, reducing production costs. Its main function is to hold the diffuser and the wooden slats; it also connects to its compatible suspension bracket. When designing the ring I had to take into account the flexibility of the plastic, it needed to flex enough to allow the wooden slats to clip easily into place for the customer. The slat rings were designed with 28 sets of flexible clips which gave an aesthetically pleasing 13mm gap between each wooden slat. This even amount of clips also allows for a greater range of design, such as alternating the wooden slats on some of our more angled designs such as the XX390.