“Cofit-20” by Atelier Haute Cuisine – Multi-form lighting with concrete roots
Founded in 2009, Atelier Haute Cuisine is a design collective made up of makers Bernd Tyskens and Benny Conings.
Despite their moniker, they do not do any cooking or food related activities. Rather, they act like cooks as they mix different ingredients together in order to contribute to a greater whole, just like you would cook a meal. The outcome can be handmade objects, light sculptures, furniture, site specific installations, and concepts.
For “Cofit-20”, Atelier Haute Cuisine sought to incorporate the light bulb into the design of the light’s base. Instead of designing a light fixture that covers the light bulb, they created a pedestal made of coal and concrete composite to display it – a brick with two different imprints of a bulb with socket.
Depending on how the brick is placed – horizontal or vertical, to the left or the right – and in which imprint the light bulb is fixed, the design and display takes on different forms to showcase the individualised, playful quality of the piece.
The material used for this limited edition of 100 pieces is a concrete mixture made out of pieces of coal and coal waste that the duo have collected in the area where they grew up, tying the piece to a special local despite its eventual home.
“Cofit-20” was featured as part of “Ceci N’est Pas…”, a Belgian collection curated by Elien Haentjens for the Virtual Design Destination by ADORNO at London Design Festival in September 2020.
