{"id":596848,"date":"2026-09-11T06:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T06:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/596848\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T06:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T06:56:13","slug":"lighting-is-functional-sculpture-joe-armitage-on-taking-inspiration-from-nature-and-his-grandmother","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/596848\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Lighting is functional sculpture\u2019: Joe Armitage on taking inspiration from nature \u2013 and his grandmother"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Image may contain Person Sitting Furniture Table Adult Face Head Photography Portrait Fern Plant Desk and Tree\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"ResponsiveImageContainer-dkeESL cQPiWi responsive-image__image\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/562A9767-production_digital.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Joe with his \u2018Modernist\u2019 lamp at Timothy Hatton Architects<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-dropcap body dropcap has-dropcap__lead-standard-heading\">Designer Joe Armitage hails from a British design dynasty. His great-grandfather Joseph was a renowned stone carver and his grandfather Edward was a prominent modernist architect, who not only designed buildings, but also created a sculptural floor lamp from rosewood and scrap materials when working in India in 1952.<\/p>\n<p>Both Joe\u2019s aunt and uncle are architects, while his grandmother, of whom Joe is fiercely proud, is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houseandgarden.co.uk\/topic\/wallpaper\" isautogenerated=\"true\" class=\"text link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">wallpaper<\/a> designer Marthe Armitage \u2013 known for her intricate, hand-drawn botanical prints. To say design is in the blood is an understatement. \u2018I have four generations to live up to,\u2019 he says.<\/p>\n<p>Joe, a former design director for sustainable <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houseandgarden.co.uk\/topic\/lighting\" isautogenerated=\"true\" class=\"text link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">lighting<\/a> company Tala, began his own journey as a solo creative in 2021 by refining his grandfather\u2019s 1952 lamp and building a sustainable product line \u2013 the \u2018Armitage\u2019 collection \u2013 around it.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018My grandmother, who is my inspiration, suggested I redesign the lamp, which was, at the time, in her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houseandgarden.co.uk\/topic\/living-room\" isautogenerated=\"true\" class=\"text link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">living room<\/a>. That was the start of everything,\u2019 he says. \u2018That first collection was about honouring my grandfather\u2019s legacy using the same design DNA. But, by the time I created the \u2018Noveconi\u2019 chandelier [2023] for the Nilufar gallery, I had done him justice and felt I could pursue my own creative freedom.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Like his grandmother, Joe creates designs that are rooted in nature. \u2018I take the inspiration less literally, focusing on structural simplicity and the way that plants are formed using mathematics, such as the golden ratio and the Fibonacci sequence,\u2019 he says. \u2018Lighting for me is functional sculpture.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Image may contain Tom Brake Lamp Adult Person Furniture Table Clothing Footwear Shoe Desk Floor Lamp and Plant\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"ResponsiveImageContainer-dkeESL cQPiWi responsive-image__image\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/562A9542.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe with his \u2018Modernist\u2019 lamp at Timothy Hatton Architects Designer Joe Armitage hails from a British design dynasty.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,236221,38882,501,294194,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-596848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-contemporary-city","tag-decoration","tag-design","tag-designer-profiles","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}