Dezeen Magazine

Tenda by Benjamin Hubert at designjunction

London Design Festival: London designer Benjamin Hubert has launched a lighting collection made of underwear fabric (+ audio).

Above: listen to Benjamin Hubert talking about his new products, installation at designjunction and approach to industrial design. Hear more audio interviews with designers and curators at the London Design festival here.

Called Tenda, meaning 'tent' in Italian, the product brings together fibreglass rods from the kite-making industry, Lycra from the sportswear industry, four-way stretchy mesh from the underwear industry and a construction technique from tent-making.

Tenda by Benjamin Hubert at designjunction

The rods are held in tension by the textile cover and brass connectors and light is diffused by the inner layers of Lycra.

Tenda by Benjamin Hubert at designjunction

In conversation with Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs at Dezeen Live, Hubert explained how he intends to produce the lamps under his own brand, selling direct to architects, retailers and distributors. "I think the royalty model is dead," he said. "Instead of handing it over to a third party, and essentially having a middle man in the process, we decided that we'd develop the whole thing."

Tenda by Benjamin Hubert at designjunction

"We made everything work over a period of six months," he continued, "with somebody on a sewing machine and then bending up fibreglass rods. Why give it to a brand at the end of that? And so this is one of our first attempts at going direct."

Tenda by Benjamin Hubert at designjunction

Talking about his approach to designing new products, Hubert told Dezeen "we call it materials-driven, process-led industrial design and it just means that we start from a construction. We start from a fold, we start from a weave, we start from a stretch and then the application - a light, a chair, a table - comes later."

Tenda by Benjamin Hubert at designjunction

He showed the project as part of designjunction in London last week, which took place in the industrial setting of a former postal sorting-office.

Tenda by Benjamin Hubert at designjunction

See all our stories from the festival here, check out the ten most popular ones here and listen to designers talk about their work in our audio guide here.

Tenda by Benjamin Hubert at designjunction

See all our stories about Benjamin Hubert here and watch an earlier movie interview Dezeen filmed with him here.

Tenda by Benjamin Hubert at designjunction