Galaxy pendant lamp by Charles and Ray Eames and Helena pendant and wall lamp by Charles Eames

The Cassina Lighting Collection was launched in 2023 as a catalogue of luminaires for every room and taste in the style of ‘The Cassina Perspective’. While always destined to evolve with new innovations, re-editions and product expansions, its genesis is rooted in history. During the 1960s, already well aware of the importance of lighting, Cesare Cassina established Flos with Dino Gavina. This pioneering insight lives again today in Cassina’s lighting catalogue, which arises from the discovery of the lighting designs by Charles and Ray Eames conserved at the Eames Office.

Cassina, with its pioneering attitude and its experience in the production and reissue of historic works of the Modern Movement, has explored these designs in close collaboration with the Eames Office through in-depth philological research. Initiated in 2023 with the exhibition of the Galaxy prototype during Milan Design Week, this journey continues with the launch of this model and the Helena lamp, created in close collaboration with the heirs and produced today for the first time on an industrial scale.

First presented by Charles and Ray Eames at ‘An Exhibition for Modern Living’, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1949, Galaxy was made in the prototype shop at the Eames Office from automotive components and different sized brass tubes, inserted into a sphere made from a wooden ball. Now, Cassina has developed this burst of light for serial production in close collaboration with the Eames Office and through in-depth research work, implementing modern technologies and materials, while still safeguarding the research process conducted by the two designers.

Designed by Charles Eames in St. Louis, Missouri, Helena was intended to illuminate the interior of St. Mary’s church in the small town of Helena by the Mississippi River in Arkansas, where it still hangs today. After further development by Cassina, it is now available to market as a pendant and wall lamp, both consisting of a blown-glass sphere, covered with an adjustable aluminium hemisphere with a pattern of small, perforated stars creating a harmonious play of light and shadow that emphasises its celestial resemblance.

© Architonic

Head to the Architonic Magazine for more insights on the latest products, trends and practices in architecture and design.