For his debut lighting collaboration with the Italian lighting empire known as Foscarini, designer Werner Aisslinger kept himself at his usual high standard. For the sake of symbolism, I’d go as far as saying he’s hit his little Behive table light right out of the park. Literally. Take away its bulbous, mushroom-top qualities and admit that something about the little guy resembles a tennis racquet almost as much as it acts as a pristine body double for a backyard beehive.

Behive table lamp. Designed by Werner Aisslinger. Manufactured by Foscarini.

Horizontal Strips of White Polycarbonate Create Varied Lighting Effects

The Foscarini/Studio Aisslinger team states that the pudgy lighting prodigy is “the perfect blend of formal purity and technological research”. Made in Italy by Foscarini out of polycarbonate, the graphic stripes are perplexing and entrancing. In some ways, I see Aisslinger’s 2005 design of Tree lamp in his Behive lamp come through. His excellent diffused system of slatted, horizontal lines doesn’t go unnoticed. We can also see his rich use of clean lines from the Level 34 office furniture system he created for Vitra in 2004.

One of my favorite parts about the Behive is its ability to visually transform its effect on the human eye. From night to day and when turned  from on to off, the Behive lamp takes on distinctly unique appearances. Notice how the lit version’s white polycarbonate stripes appear dark compared to the light shining through, whereas the unlit version shows off the white lamp skeleton as a full-bodied structure, looking almost solid in appearance.

“Deceptively simple and regular in appearance, the white rings of Behive are the result of a highly complex collaborative engineering process and materials research,” writes the Behive description of its 15.75″ dia. x 15.75″ H that uses one 150W halogen or 20W fluorescent light bulb (or perhaps just a tennis ball and makeshift handle).

About the Designer: As an architect and designer from Berlin, Germany, the designer we’ve come to love after his collaborations with both Ron Arad and Jasper Morrison – Werner Aisslinger –  is at it again. Beginning in 1993 when he opened Studio Aisslinger, and specialized in product design, Aisslinger has since worked with the biggest designers to hit the modern market. In fact, his resume includes timeless favorites such as Zanotta, Cappellini, Porro, Magis, Vitra and Lorenz, among others. In his 2012 lighting design of the Behive lamp with Foscarini, he’s declared yet another tally in the triumphant line-up of successful partners.