In 1952, Le Corbusier finished work on La Cité Radieuse in Marseille, the first apartment block of the Unité d’Habitation – a series of concrete apartment buildings that are often thought to be the basis of brutalism. The apartment buildings, in Corb’s mind, would contain everything a family might need to live a modern life – streets in the sky.  

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Naturally, he designed many of the fuxtures and fittings, with similarly modernist sensibilities – including the Lampe de Marseille, which is still in production and which you can buy from Matisse here in Aotearoa New Zealand. 

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The lamp, in its original form, is an adjustable wall fitting with two joints on the arm and a rotating wall fixing. Sammy-Rose Scapens of Homewerk owns five wall lamps from the series. All have a spun aluminium diffuser and come in matt grey, whitewash or black. “I found it in a book when I first got interested in architecture as a student,” says Scapens, who owns a John Scott house in Bay of Plenty. “When we got our house I realised I could buy some art or spend lots of money on lights. I bought lots of lights.” 

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Something seems right about this light in a John Scott house. While Scott didn’t design apartments, he did design total environments and he also liked a play between light and shadow, and for that reason, Scapens stuck with wall lights and lamps in the house. 

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But it’s the Lampe de Marseille that captures all the attention: people like to play with it. Currently in the mezzanine office and library, it casts distinctive shadows, and is handy for illuminating a particular book. “It creates beautiful light patterns, and the light reflects off the ceilings at different times of the day,” says Scapens. “This is a really theatrical home and I feel like it goes with that.”

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Stockist, Matisse

matisse.co.nz

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