During 3daysofdesign 2026 in Copenhagen, Carl Hansen & Son was revealed What a foola new sculptural pendant light designed by Øivind Slaattoreinterpreting the logics of nature through a balance of mathematical control and unpredictability.
The lamp made its debut indoors “Balanced principles”, an exhibition held at the brand’s flagship store, which aimed to explore how material, form and function come together through negotiation, experimentation and craftsmanship.
Begonia © Carl Hansen and Søn
Balanced Principles © Carl Hansen and Søn
Balanced Principles © Carl Hansen and Søn
Begonia © Carl Hansen and Søn
Begonia © Carl Hansen and Søn
Balanced Principles © Carl Hansen and Søn
Begonia © Carl Hansen and Søn
Balanced Principles © Carl Hansen and Søn
Begonia © Carl Hansen and Søn
Carl Hansen & Son at 3daysofdesign 2026:
Øivind Slaatto and Begonya
Slaatto is a Copenhagen-based designer with an early design career shaped by industrial and audio products before turning his attention to light. Begonya marks his first collaboration with Carl Hansen & Søn. As with his other works, the initial inspiration for the design came from nature, specifically the beauty of looking into a fire.
Slaatto emphasizes that fires are fascinating to the human eye because they are unpredictable; they will always look different from every angle and at every moment. To replicate this feeling, he designed a complex mathematical structure on a paper-like non-woven polyethylene dress so that the lighting always looks different based on the height at which the lamp is placed and the angle from which we look at it. The light bulb feels alive because, to the eye, it is both fixed and moving, as is the case with most natural phenomena such as fire or water. The name is a deliberate distortion, spelled with a “y” instead of the botanical “begonia”, representing the fusion between nature and artificiality.
The elliptical shade is designed to provide light properly to its surroundings but also to hide the light source, avoiding discomfort. Inside each shade is an intricate aluminum frame finished in a warm gold tone, assembled via joints that allow the frame to be held together without glue or screws. Assembling the dress to the frame is a complex process involving 168 precise joints and a single fixture can take up to 7 hours to make.
Craftsmanship and heritage
7 hours is an absurd amount of work for an industrially produced lampshade, but it fits perfectly with the philosophy and heritage of the company. All of Carl Hansen & Søn’s products (aside from their outdoor line) are made in Denmark, mostly by hand, a country where craftsmanship is becoming increasingly rare due to its high wages, forcing many companies to outsource production elsewhere for affordability.
The brand strongly supports handcrafted products, believing that people are the highest level of technology we have. Knud Erik Hansen, the company’s CEO and third-generation owner, frames this approach through a question: If the movement of a human hand when rubbing a piece of wood is what it is because of millions of years of evolution, how could a machine reproduce its sensitivity?
Their current factory is located on the Danish island of Funen and employs approximately 500 people. The facility houses not only production but also an academy, where young craftsmen are trained every year through an intensive program. As the products are mostly made by hand, the work can become physically taxing on the workers and for this reason, the company has a physiotherapist on all staff as well as warm-up sessions to attend in the morning to avoid sprains or stiffness.
Balanced Principles
The exhibition held at Carl Hansen & Søn’s flagship store featured more than just the Begonya lamp as the brand’s new entry. The show ran from June 10 to 12 and was structured as a conversation between historic pieces and new ones, all anchored in the brand’s heritage. Along with Begonya, the show featured Fabricius & Kastholm’s sculptural Scimitar chair, designed in 1963 but reworked in production by the Danish firm. Porcelight is another reissue, a thin bone pendant designed by Erik Magnussen in 1982 that transforms the translucency of the material into soft, diffused light. The iconic Wishbone chair, the company’s most famous design, was presented in a new leather-upholstered version as a subtle reinterpretation.
What makes Begonya a useful object for thought in this exhibition, beyond its obvious visual appeal, is how clearly it compresses Carl Hansen & Sonits entire operating philosophy in a single product. The company’s defining tension has always been between craftsmanship and industry, between the craftsmanship of the cabinetmaker and the demands of producing furniture on an international scale, without undermining what made it valuable in the first place.
Wegner’s Wishbone chair in wood and cord, Begonya resolves this tension through aluminum and synthetic fibers. The materials have changed, as has the design language, but the underlying commitment remains true to the company’s origins. The “Balanced Principles” describe how a company meets its requirements identity intact in a century of change.
