A vision takes shape: the story behind the Adilo pendant lamp
"It was a perfect match right from the start. The moment I saw Ilkka present his prototype at a young designers’ showcase, I knew it belonged at Secto Design," recalls Tuula Jusélius, the company’s founder and creative lead, about how the Adilo pendant lamp joined the collection.
"I have always envisioned lamps that could be shipped and stored flat yet effortlessly transform into elegant, full-scale design pieces in the hands of their owners. That’s exactly what Adilo is. In addition, it is made from the same Finnish birch wood as the rest of our collection," she explains.
The extensively design-protected Adilo pendant lamp comes in two sizes: Adilo Small 8201 and Adilo 8200 pendant lamps (not available in North America).
Adilo is the brainchild of Ilkka Kauppinen (born in1988), a rising Finnish talent. Originally trained as a wood artisan, Kauppinen graduated as an industrial designer from the LAB Institute of Design and Fine Arts in 2018, refining his craft by designing and producing unique furniture pieces and working on bespoke residential saunas.
The idea for a flat-packed pendant lamp that expands into a sculptural, spherical form came to him years ago. However, the complex modelling process took time, and the project was put on hold as other work took priority. Last year, the relentless innovator returned to his unfinished challenge with renewed determination. After meticulous refinement, his persistence paid off: Adilo was born – a uniquely innovative pendant lamp that unfolds from a flat disc into a mesmerising luminaire with a simple gesture.
Ilkka Kauppinen spent several years modelling a lamp that would fold out from a flat disc into a sculptural design piece.
Kauppinen could not have hoped for a better home for Adilo. “It has been immensely gratifying to develop the design further in collaboration with the resourceful experts of the Secto Design factory, who are already familiar with all the characteristics of birch veneer as a material”, he rejoices.
Tuula Jusélius notes that the concept of a fold-out lamp is not entirely new to Secto Design. Even before launching the very first model in the current collection, the Secto 4200 pendant lamp, designer Seppo Koho experimented with a flat-pack design. However, at the time, the available materials were not durable enough to make it a reality. Years later, the spiralling Aspiro pendant was introduced, a design that ships flat and takes its playful form when suspended.
The Adilo pendant lamp’s twirled shape looks different from various perspectives.
Now, Adilo joins the collection, combining logistical ingenuity with artistic expression. Crafted from delicate but unbelievably strong slats of birch plywood, the novelty does not reveal itself at first glance. Instead, it compels the viewer to move around it to appreciate its alluring glow from different viewpoints.
Extensively design-protected, the Adilo 8200 pendant lamp (not available in North America) and it's more compact version, the Adilo Small 8201 pendant lamp (not available in North America), will be unveiled as prototypes at Milan Design Week and will be commercialised later in the year.
