Matter and Shape is a contemporary design salon in Paris that connects the worlds of design, crafts, and architecture. Launched in 2024 by Matthieu Pinet and creatively led by Dan Thawley, it is held annually in the Jardin des Tuileries during Paris Fashion Week. The four-day event celebrates global design culture by showcasing exceptional projects from both established names and emerging talents.
From lighting and furniture to interior objects, Matter and Shape welcomes it all. The 2026 edition highlighted many interesting designs, but the lighting fixtures were the ones that turned the most heads for their creative designs, quirky silhouettes, and materials used. Here are the five most intriguing lighting designs we saw at the 2026 Matter and Shape.
100F Luminaire
The 100F luminaire (1969–1972) is a specialized, long-stemmed floor lamp designed by Finnish modernist Yrjö Kukkapuro and manufactured by Swedish lighting company Blond. It is built from aluminum, tubular steel, and fiberglass, giving it a minimalistic industrial look.
The floor light is a practical solution for spaces with ceilings that cannot support hefty fixtures. Inspired by photographic umbrellas, the fiberglass reflector casts a soft, indirect light while maintaining a restrained, architectural form. It was born out of necessity in the Kukkapuro’s experimental studio, where traditional ceiling-mounted lighting fixtures were not possible.
Andromeda
Lindsey Adelman Studio presented Andromeda, a lighting system of chandeliers and scones that looks like stars scattering over the sky after a cosmic explosion. The collection marks the studio’s two-decade milestone. It flaunts protruding steel arms cutting sharply through space, colliding at unexpected angles, while mold-blown glass rocks (inspired by Lindsey’s longtime glassblowing partner Michiko’s glass rock cups) are affixed like celestial debris. Emitting a soft glow, the lamp spans over a wide array of sizes, from a compact 26-inch-high sconce to a medium chandelier at 2.6 feet tall to a 5-foot vertical composition and horizontal configurations stretching 6 feet across.
“I think of Andromeda less as a static fixture and more as a moment in motion. It’s about that instant where force gives way to flow—where structure, light, and energy briefly align,” Adelman tells Homecrux.
Softpillar Light
Designed by Payam Askari, HIDESCAPES is an experimental exploration of leather as a living surface developed in collaboration with the Italian material platform SK!N. The project transforms leather waste into a unified material language, and the Softpillar light is part of the series, along with a sofa and a folding screen.
Using thinned, translucent parchment leather, the pillar light reveals the layered patchwork when lit from within. The lamp interprets a hidescape into a lighting solution that emphasizes translucency and internal layering. A stainless structure is draped with translucent leather, and the lighting comes from integrated LED components.
UFO Acorn Lamp
The French designer Simon Dupety, who was featured as a prominent exhibitor following his win at the 2025 Grand Prix du Jury at Design Parade Hyères, presented the UFO (Unindustrial Functional Object) collection featuring the UFO acorn lamp. The lamp is made from acorns harvested from oak trees, which are then treated like semi-industrial products alongside profiles and LEDs.
The lamp structure is built from repeated individual lighting with each unit being a luminous capsule, an LED set within an acorn shell, placed alongside a slender aluminum frame. The design demonstrates how a large architectural structure can grow from a single, tiny functional component. Dupety describes the work as ‘the system versus the wild,’ stating that while these can be produced in series, they can’t be fully industrialized due to the reliance on natural resources.
ITYS Lamp
Garnier et Linker, the French designer duo, presented a beautiful series of ITYS lamp variants at the 2026 Matter and Shape. The sculpting lamps explore the interaction between light and lost-wax cast glass. Each piece is one of a kind because of the bubbles and veils that form randomly during the slow-firing process to harden the glass, giving the glass unique textures and appearance. The solid glass blocks are then mounted onto minimalist aluminum structures to provide the look.
The series includes table lamps, pendants, and scones in various sizes and finishes. These glass lights include integrated LED strips designed to highlight the internal complexity. As for the glass color, there are multiple options, including transparent, grey, straw yellow, orange, champagne, dark honey, brown grey, light blue, and light green. Structure finishes are available in black patinated, gunmetal, or polished/aluminum.
The 2026 Matter and Shape was a mix of industrial, geometric, and intriguing designs. Some designs impressed with their quirky appearances, some with their technicalities, and others with their material.
