South Africa has developed a reputation for being home to incredible design talent from architecture to interiors – our work appears across the globe. Thus, it comes as no surprise that the world’s largest residential chandelier is designed by Cape Town-based leading experiential lighting design studio, One to One by Martin Döller. The incredible experiential lighting piece will be placed in a private residence designed by the globally renowned architectural firm SAOTA in Lagos, Nigeria. The official unveiling of the chandelier to the design community took place at Miles Beyond, in Cape Town, and soon the piece will make the journey to its final home.
ARRCC, the award-winning interior studio conceptualised the interiors for the 8000 square metre property in Lagos and pulled in long-time collaborator Martin Döller, principal of One to One Studio to create the lighting piece “Conceptualising Stemma in the midst of a global pandemic was a remarkable design challenge not only because of the general uncertainty of that time but finding the inspiration and also understanding what the client was looking for – all online – was a new experience,” says Döller.
The chandelier, akin more to a sculptural art piece, was conceived and crafted over three years. An iterative design process drew upon several disciplines and nature for a final product that spans over 15m in length, 4m across, is 6m tall, and weighs 1000kg. Martin explains that the final piece, “Stemma, inspired by nature’s beauty, mimics a sun-dappled forest with cascading lights resembling sunlight through branches. Creating a soft, natural glow, bringing the serenity of the outdoors into the home. This coupled with the light being in the centre of a family home also led us to its naming. Stemma – Latin for family tree, echoes how we looked at creating the entire lighting experience. It needs to function in creating homely lighting for cozy nights while also catering to the memorable moments that the client and his family will have.”
Beyond the sheer scale of Stemma, the light will be suspended from a 9m high glass and steel skylight. “There is a deeply technical aspect to creating this. At our studio, we created several scale models of the light to ensure that we got the anchoring, electrical, and other technical components of the piece right. We also spent time innovating with aluminium sheet and tubing, powder coating, and patinas to get the right finish. We wanted a timeless essence to this piece because it will live in a home for generations to come,” Doller elucidates.
Three years, in excess of a thousand man-hours later and Stemma is complete. This seminal project is just the next phase in a 15-year journey. “We are a proudly South African studio and look forward to taking our work further into the continent and beyond,” concludes Martin. One to One continues to push the boundaries of experiential lighting, the studio has recently completed experiential lighting at the illustrious Delaire Graaff estate, has several residential projects in the works, and is set for exciting international projects.
