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Since its establishment, Western Cape-based furniture design firm Meyer von Wielligh have favoured the gentle lines and intricate texture of nature in their designs.
Their signature range, the Umthi Range (tree in Xhosa), takes its simple, organic style from the flow of tree branches. This striking approach to design motivated Lindi Ndebele-Koka to nominate the firm’s Umthi Hanging Lamp as the Most Beautiful Object In South Africa 2016 (MBOISA).
Ndebele-Koka, the senior manager at the Department of Arts and Culture, is considered an authority on the creative and cultural industries in South Africa. She describes beauty as something that is striking and simple with the ability to linger within the mind of the viewer.
“When you look at this piece, it’s a simple side lamp really,” says Ndebele-Koka. “But you can see that a lot of thought went behind it because it’s architectural.”
In designing the lamp, Meyer von Wielligh’s marketing manager AJ Bell says the team sought to embrace the natural beauty found in wood. “The speciality of it is that it is a sculpture as well as a lamp. It’s multifunctional,” adds Bell.
