FLOS Tatou T1 White Table Lamp

Designed by Patricia Urquiola for FLOS.

A contemporary floor lamp finished in White.

The Tatou is available as a family of products including consisting of a matching table lamp, floor lamp, and two sizes of ceiling suspension. The range is available in a choice of three colours which are white, black and ochre grey.

“Tatou began life as a luminaire that crosses a traditional dome style with a surface that is interpreted through a creative language to screen and let the light filter through from inside. The first prototypes were suspension models, but they immediately bred into a family. Development in various sizes and situations in the domestic environment came naturally. The process began by looking for different ways to reconstruct membranes, conceived like Japanese armour: a series of metal buckles cleverly united by tapes with a powerful emotional value. There was then a process of simplification into overlapping, perforated, vertical bands riveted together. We translated the design into a mass production process by transitioning to injection moulding. The overlapping of these bands has been crystallised in three-dimensional leather, a variable section mould and by the geometric pattern. With Flos, the challenge was to obtain a mass produced product, while retaining strong artisan connotations. Tatou is French for armadillo: the mammal famous for its structure made up of plates of bone covered with a protective layer of horn. ‘Tatou’ has an emotional sound to it, which I think is consistent with the emotional function of this object.” Patricia Urquiola

ABOUT FLOS - For fifty years we have been crafting objects of light and shedding brightness on generations of dreams. For us, light is the substance for expressing new ideas and illuminating unexplored emotions. We write the future, reading our past and expressing the present, in a continuity of positive challenges and bold choices that have shaped our image and identity. Our history has taught us to fan the flames of provocation with research into new poetic notions of functionality. Trusting our intuition has always allowed us to create products that become icons, establishing new typologies and innovative archetypes. Connecting with masters of design. Discovering new talents. Commanding high technical and technological status. Staying tuned into mass culture. These qualities always place us at the cutting edge. Experimentation opens the way for us to use revolutionary materials - as in the past with Cocoon - and hi-tech solutions, today represented by OLEDs and eco-sustainable materials. By conceiving new languages around light, we chart new aesthetics and freedoms for living. Our lamps, of yesterday and today, never fail to be serious about their sense of play and irony. On the fine line that divides and unites art and design, craftsmanship and industry, the limited edition and larger scale manufacturing, an individual’s idea and the collective imagination. That’s our place. That’s where you’ll find us.