I have both a special admiration and a special hatred for Tyvek®, that untearable terrible material. While I appreciate its fortitude—and I feel better as a sender when I’ve packaged something in the stuff—I hate being on the receiving end, since, as everyone knows, not even a letter opener will break open that seal. You need to rifle through desk and kitchen drawers in order to find a sharp pair of scissors or a knife. That’s because Tyvek® is a special DuPont synthetic constructed of flashspun high-density polyethylene fibers, which means it’s super lightweight, super strong, and waterproof (hence its value as envelope material).

Holes. Designed by Bertjan Pot for Arturo Alvarez.

Untearable Tyvek Hanging Lamp

But Dutch design wonder Bertjan Pot has found a whole new application for this ingredient, cooking up a hanging lamp called Holes. Presented at Milan Design Week 2011, Holes is a 3D form composed of twenty triangular planes. Created for Spanish lighting firm Arturo Alvarez, the suspension lamp lets light snake through the Tyvek® via perfect little round holes punched regularly throughout the complex form. Holes uses white metal and white Tyvek®; inside, the structure consists or thirty bars and twelve connectors. So the lamp is as indestructible as those pesky envelopes I receive periodically through the mail—except, in the case of a lamp, this characteristic is particularly wonderful: Holes should last a long long time. And at some point in the future when Holes has reached the end of its useful life (hard to imagine but nevertheless I must mention it), its Tyvek® material makes it recyclable.

About the manufacturer: Arturo Alvarez is a Spanish company that designs and fabricates lamps. They pride themselves on focusing on “the human being; we take into consideration its needs, interests and the different vital situations.” They tailor-make their lighting products, which is why each Arturo Alvarez lamp is numbered and labeled or engraved with the brand. The company, headquartered in Coruña, distributes their products the world over, though lamps are produced exclusively in Spain. Arturo Alvarez lighting is “made by skilled and experienced Spanish hands” (one can only hope that they’re attached to Spanish bodies).

Via Designboom.