Balanced elegance of lightness. LILY is a three-piece range of candle holders designed by DESIGN STUDIO NIRUK for the Danish manufacturer Bolia. A slim strip of steel bent into a three-dimensional shape characterises the design – inspired by nature.

With the LILY candle holder, NIRUK has created a design that  looks equally at home on elegantly set restaurant tables as in cosy living areas. The polished stainless-steel version emphasises a festive, luxurious ambience, while the brushed version of LILY is a little more subtle. Thanks to the design style, which is both curved and organic, and yet very graphic and clear, the candle holders can be arranged in straight rows or in more playful, freely distributed configurations. 

The initial impulse for the design process of LILY was artistic and intuitive. It was based on simple strips of paper, the ends of which the design duo joined together to form a round opening at the top. The long leaves of the iris, whose upper tip naturally bends downwards due to their weight, served as inspiration. The shape bent from a strip of paper with a round opening was developed by DESIGN STUDIO NIRUK into the idea of a candle holder: the designers gently pressed the resulting loop against a flat surface, thus creating the base. Thin metal sheet was used to evaluate the design’s stability. As a shape-retaining and fire-resistant material, metal also lent itself to the final design. Moving from a dimensionally stable, functional prototype to a balanced design, 3D models were used in the further course of the process. These were particularly helpful to the designers in their evaluation and guided the process from artistically intuitive to a technically accurate and detailed finished product. 

„We looked very closely at the relationships between open and closed surfaces. For LILY‘s balanced appearance, characterised by a special lightness, we coordinated all relevant parameters in interaction. To achieve a natural harmony between material thickness, weight and height – both for a single candle holder and for an ensemble.“