In The Tube
120-1300 Pendant Horizontal IP20

Gaëlle Lauriot-Prévost & Dominique Perrault

Jules Verne is not dead! He wants to go to the Moon. He needs a lamp to build his rocket, to correct the spelling mistakes in his old books once on board, and to light his way when he gets there. He may be expecting storms of sand or ice. In any case, the lamp has to be very tough. IP64 means it is protected for outdoor use. There is another constraint: not to insult the stars. They must remain sources of light. That is when Gaëlle Lauriot-Prévost and Dominique Perrault design these tubes. This was a major moment for DCW. Until then, we had only reissued twentieth-century objects. It was our first time working with contemporary creators to develop something new. When we presented the tubes in 2015 at Maison & Objet, then Euroluce in Milan, there were no tubes in the world of decorative lighting. It was a risk: this was an unfamiliar aesthetic, and we were opening a new path. Friends whose aesthetic sensibility I shared, especially antiques dealers with a very sharp eye, reassured me that it was interesting. Then the editor-in-chief of a magazine I loved, and still love, arrived at our stand. “Fred, Lampe Gras—wonderful. Mantis—bravo. Here Comes the Sun—you haven't put a foot wrong. But these tubes, like something from a footbath, a car park exit or the Paris transport system! You've gone too far.” I was devastated. This was a queen of decoration, and I was left with my tubes, which I still thought were magnificent. I felt rather panicked. Two years later, the same editor called: “Fred, I was wrong. I saw one above a friend's table. It's really good, and I'm going to put one over a table in my house by the sea.” Ten years on, both collections, the original tubes and the 360-degree tubes, are genuine successes. Our proposition attracted attention, and now there is plenty of competition. Look closely and you will see the good tubes, the ones with magic, and others that remain too industrial. That is for you to judge. At DCW, we owe Dominique Perrault and Gaëlle Lauriot-Prévost a great deal: they trusted us when we were a very young company. In magazines, interior designers continue to show their creativity, often greater than ours. Above a table, I really recommend a height of 80 centimetres, 85 at most. The tube draws people together; it is reassuring and joyful. As a wall lamp, it works in any room, from bathroom to corridor to living room. Another interesting use is outdoors, on façades, in the mountains or by the ocean. With stainless steel and borosilicate glass, it is very robust. It transforms a façade, and is so much more elegant and pleasant than those squares casting triangles of light on buildings. It is distressing to see mountain chalets scarred by poor lighting. These magical tubes quietly recede during the day; at night, they preserve the magic of the darkness.