When I first glimpsed Tegola—the innovative desk/table lamp by Studio Klass for Pimar–something about it struck me as vaguely familiar, vaguely suggestive of some socio-historico-cultural icon. Then it struck me with the force of the Pharaohs: The lamp’s severe yet curvaceous silhouette reminds me of Cleopatra, famed ruler of the Nile.

Tegola. Designed by Studio Klass. Manufactured by Pimar.

The Tegola Lamp Employs An Innovative Material and Unusual Construction Method

That sense of historical deja vu is no accident. For Tegola is inspired by a famous Middle Eastern motif, “In Jordan, entirely dug and carved into the rock, the leccese stone, a material with great tradition in the architectural world.”

A natural material composed of calcium carbonate, magnesium carbonate, clay and sand, Leccese is famed for its easy workability and beautiful milky smooth sheen. Most prevalent as the primary material of churches and other buildings in the Italian towns of Lecce and Salento, it’s also been used throughout the ages by sculptors memorializing great figures—like the aforementioned Cleopatra.

Tegola—and the smaller companion Petra Lamp—represent an updated use for this venerated material. Both Lamps feature a simple two-part construction—the head and the neck, if you will, of this re-incarnation of Cleopatra. Milled from the same stone, the two parts easily fit together to form the base and the shade.

As it avoids the inevitable superfluous material created while manufacturing multiple parts, the production method virtually eliminates waste—not to mention the efficiency of a lamp whose entire make-up consists of one material.

And what a material it is. Leccese is as silky smooth as the purest marble, as ethereally white as clouds, making Tegola a fitting monument not only to a legendary personage of ancient Egypt, but also to the very notion of light: “the protagonist of a sculptural but also functional object, which enhances the properties and the different opportunities of industrial manufacturing.”

About the Designer: Founded by Marco Maturo and Alessio Roscini in 2009, Studio Klass envisions new solutions that synthesize functional demands with historical persistence… “putting the archetypal idea of the object into discussion, hence inviting the observer to evaluate reality according to a different point of view.” Most recently, the approach has resulted in the Tegola and Petra Lamps, an innovative pair of lightpieces that employ the ancient material of leccese stone in a beautiful, highly functional product with a contemporary aesthetic.