Good Chemistry

Many of us appreciate the functional beauty of laboratory flasks enough to take one home and stick a flower in it. But the 25-year-old Benjamin Hubert loves the vessels enough to pay glowing tribute to them in a new lighting series for the English manufacturer Authentics. “I’ve always been interested in archetypal glass forms—in bottles, lips, necks, and the main parts,” says the London-based designer. “This collection was really a response to that.” Labware, which consists of three floor lamps and three hanging lamps, was launched in September at London’s 100% Design, where it was awarded Best New Product. Unlike their scientific counterparts, the lamps are mouth-blown from milky white glass and come in sizes ranging from 9.4 to 11 inches. “There’s a little playfulness in it,” Hubert says, “the idea of working with glass in a very traditional way but giving it a bit of a twist.”