GUBI - Timberline Floor Lamp

After decades out of production, the Timberline Floor Lamp by Mads Caprani is at last returning to the homes of design lovers worldwide. First created by the Danish lighting designer in the 1970s, the Timberline rapidly became Caprani’s flagship product – a playfully curving, swan-necked floor lamp that both captures the Scandinavian design language of the 1970s and also transcends it, becoming one of those rare pieces that can slip effortlessly into any space, of any style. The lamp takes its name from Caprani’s fascination with the tree line – nature’s inherent limit on the altitude at which trees can grow, the point of transition on the landscape between wood and rock. In the lamp, he translated the notion of a natural boundary into an abrupt material juxtaposition between wood and iron. The Timberline is formed from three distinctive elements, each in a different natural material. A pleated canvas lampshade is fitted to a sinuous formed-veneer spine, supported, and stabilised by a crescent-shaped cast-iron base. Both whimsical and elegant, Caprani’s lamp embodies a number of juxtapositions in form and material. The sharp, clean lines of the shade contrast with the curves of the spine, while its light, natural colour finds an answer in the black of the base. The appearance of the lamp is lightweight, almost as though it might tip over or take off at any time, but the cast-iron base is perfectly weighted to ensure stability. 

To create what is perhaps the Timberline’s most distinctive feature, its sinuous stem, GUBI’s team employed a reverse-engineering method that enabled a precise line of curvature. The spine itself is formed from several layers of oak and birch, which are visible in the lamp's profile, elevating a complex construction technique into a design element in its own right. Another signature of the design, a groove running up the centre of the spine, contains the cord, preserving the lamp’s sleek curved silhouette and demonstrating Caprani’s exceptional understanding of his chosen materials.