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In 1616, Candlelight Law required every fifth house in Dublin to put a candle in the window to light the path of walkers after dusk. Now, over 400 years later, a new handmade lighting brand whose ethos is “harmony through design” brings that little-known piece of history into the present day with a nod to the past in its name.
House Five is inspired by Danish and Japanese design icons of the mid-twentieth century, and each piece is handmade in a home workshop in Glasnevin. Behind the brand is couple Luke Conlan and Gauthier Gilbert, who began experimenting with woodwork and rice paper in late 2019, and continued right through the worst days of the pandemic.
“We’re both really driven by the desire to create. Even if our creations aren’t necessarily that successful, the creative process is what really drives us,” says Luke. “We’ve explored lots of other crafts like pottery, weaving and metal work, and Gauthier is a talented painter. Lamp-making is our true passion though.”
Though they work closely in the design phase, when it comes to the making Luke works on the sculptural wood bases in ash, sapele and walnut, while Gauthier makes the shades in rice paper from mulberry trees and cane rattan.
The couple experimented with a lot of different woods when developing the range, including oak, teak and cherry wood, but eventually landed on this trio. “This is because they are sustainable, incredibly hard-wearing, have very unique graining, and most importantly, there is incredible diversity in all three woods,” explains Luke.
The shape of the shades emerged from a sphere. “This was the most simple and elegant shade-type we could think of. We used this as a starting point and adapted the shape of the shade to work with the wooden forms,” says Gauthier. “La Bulle, for example, was elongated to speak to the curve of the lamp stem, while La Muse is more organic and slightly more fluid. Each of the lamps evolved similarly.”
As demand increases – all five designs sold out within three weeks – and the colder weather sets in, making the wood bases in the small home workshop becomes more challenging. “We have a limited space to work in, which was fine when we were just making lamps for friends and family, but now that we’re taking orders from the public, space is very limited,” says Luke. “Luckily, woodwork is quite manual so I keep warm by shifting big sheets of wood around.”
