Paul Cocksedge designs Gravity chandelier for Moooi
The Gravity chandelier, designed by Paul Cocksedge for Moooi (image: courtesy of Moooi).
“When you look at they chandeliers, they have a metal skeleton that they then dress with crystals,” says the designer Paul Cocksedge. “They’re a feat of engineering, but I wanted to see if it could be reengineered.”
The Gravity chandelier is Cocksedge’s effort at recalibrating a chandelier to fit a lighter, more flexible form. Rather than a rigid armature, its faceted glass lights are mounted on flexible braided fabric cables, which are held aloft by thin wires. The curve of each arm of the chandelier is determined by gravity, causing the arms to drape into soft loops that can be adapted by changing the placement or length of the wire.
“The arms gently sway which gives you a clue to the mechanics of it,” says Cocksedge. “It’s like an underwater creature.” In place of the rigidity and mass of a traditional chandelier, the Gravity aims to push the typology towards a lighter, more flexible format.
(Image: Moooi)
Cocksedge’s interest in chandeliers began 10 years ago through the French crystal brand Baccarat. “Their chandeliers were amazing craft objects, but I remember thinking they were a big investment of energy and volume,” he explains. In response, Cocksedge began developing the idea for a lighter iteration of a chandelier that could be “big in scale, but mechanically very simple.”
Over the course of the subsequent decade, Cocksedge trialled different materials to achieve the effect he was after. “We had a number of wires and cords that had promise, but which didn’t give the softness of line,” he says. “We had the render, the vision, but not the mechanics.”
It was only through product development with the Dutch brand Moooi that Cocksedge was able to find materials able to achieve the kind of curve that he desired with the design. “A younger designer might say that a chandelier is too decorative, but that shape was originally functional,” he says. “That shape let a candle sit upright, which in turn gave you light. It met a real need and that curve came from function – I was trying to rethink that curve.”
The tracery of a classic chandelier’s form is retained in the natural curve of the cord, while a further nod to the original crystal arrives in the faceted pressed glass cups that surround the LED lights. “They feel like they’re holding the light within them,” says Cocksedge, “which is the work of the facets.”
Story source: Moooi