Water Based Light is a minimal light created by Vancouver-based designer Calen Knauf. The Water Based lamp is a collapsible floor lamp, developed as a response to the problematic issue of shipping “solid mass”, overwheight lamp bases. Wanting to preserve the archetype of the “solid mass” lamp base, the designer sought solutions in the outdoor industry for its focus on lightweight and collapsable materials. The goal was to create a lamp that ships in a package a fraction of its assembled size and weight. The lamp’s base is made of spun aluminum bottle commonly used for hiking water bottles and alpine stove gas canisters. This bottle is filled with water by the user to give the base weight instead of shipping that weight at the expense of the user and the earth. An LED luminaire, hidden under a flexible nylon mesh shade, is supported by tent-pole style aluminum tubing.

Photography by Conrad Brown

View more works by Calen Knauf