The Manchester Lamps

The Manchester Lamps

Bespoke artworks celebrating Manchester’s rich history of innovation and community

Year
2021
Location
Manchester UK
Client
Property Alliance Group

INTRODUCTION

With this playful series of sculptures, we wanted to create art that would inspire and engage the local community -- making moments, not monuments.

The Manchester Lamps consist of five playfully oversized domestic lamps that invite interaction and engagement within the city center. Each of the five installations marks a significant local historical innovation, with the corresponding time period echoed in each lamp’s distinctive design style; Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Victorian, mid-century and contemporary.

How it started

how it's going

Stories

Five stories of innovation to tell

Woven into the intricately designed shades of these lamps are the stories they tell. The Art Deco lamp celebrates Earnest Rutherford, whose research conducted at Manchester University in 1932 led to the splitting of the first atom. The book pages and fountain pen designs on the Art Nouveau lamp pay homage to Chetham’s Library, the oldest public library in the UK. The honeycomb lattices across the mid-century bedside light represent the famous Mancunian ‘worker bee’ mantra, whilst the humble green desk light represents world-famous mathematician and Manchester resident, Alan Turing. The modern Anglepoise lamp is turned upward, projecting a vibrant display of shape and color onto the surrounding wall, and representing the next chapter in this city’s compelling and ever-evolving story.

What Manchester does today, the rest of the world does tomorrow

Former Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel

Behind the build

The lamps were brought to life through rigorous spatial planning, technical drawings, and 3D modeling.

LAMPS BY DAY

LAMPS BY NIGHT

Design aids discovery

A series of bespoke signs, all created using a unique graphic language, invite viewers from the surrounding streets into the square where the lamps live.

Based on an abstract depiction of the map of the city, and culminate with a playful reveal to emphasise the sense of arrival. 

Legacy