Stories Behind: Africa

Africa is a sculptural reinterpretation of the traditional work lamp. Designed by Francisco Gómez Paz, the collection combines richness of form with high performance lighting capabilities. Born from the idea of trying to relate to space in a more contemporary way, it provides focused, portable illumination as well as a striking feature.

Vibia The Edit - Sculpting Light: Africa

For Francisco Gómez Paz, the traditional work lamp demonstrates great complexity and intelligence from a mechanical perspective. Fascinated by the way it transports light to a particular point in a space and holds it at that point, Africa was inspired by a desire to rethink the classic design through a contemporary lens.

“The work lamp is a typology that I really like. Through a great complexity of mechanisms, it manages to move the point of light in a space…the work lamp accompanies you, it is a proximity light that zooms in and focuses on what you are doing.”

Vibia The Edit - Africa Purpose-led portable lighting

Today, spaces have become fluid, they have become dynamic, one works and moves in a more nomadic way. Gómez Paz’s first intuition was to take out the mechanical aspect of the work lamp and to give it freedom through a battery-powered LED light source that provides a very particular type of close, focused illumination.

“Technological changes, the greater efficiency of LEDs, and the possibility of LED autonomy, allowed me to design a lamp that was disconnected from the cable, that could move freely in a space.”

Vibia The Edit - Portable lights - Africa
Vibia The Edit - Stories Behind: Africa

Africa generates a micro space within a space; a place to meet, a personal space in which to focus all of your attention. The fact of being able to take that focal point with you is very powerful, it creates a work surface wherever you are, be it a table where one is eating or a corner for reading.

Vibia The Edit - Stories Behind: Africa
Vibia The Edit - Stories Behind: Africa

“The choice of the name Africa arises perhaps from its formal connotation, that is, the fact that it is an object that reminds you of the many African sculptures that I used to see as a boy. They had a unique elegance, very pure lines and a certain fragility…”

Africa was born from an idea and little by little, its form was shaped. Form was not born before function, but as a result of the process. Beyond the merging of function and beauty, there are many parameters that make that form exist.

“A beautiful result of this collaboration with Vibia was the feeling of being pushed a little further, pushed to be ambitious in the production processes.”

Vibia The Edit - Stories Behind: Africa

On a technical level, Vibia decided on the complex challenge of making it mono material. Aluminium is a noble material, it allows it to be 100% recycled, but it also lends Africa the unique beauty of being a single piece, transforming lamp into sculpture.

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