Design Tobia Scarpa, 1963 – 2025 Re-edition
A floor lamp designed in 1963 and featured in the Flos catalogue until 1966, Seki-Han embodies Tobia Scarpa’s complex and refined design poetics, as well as his sensitivity and expertise in working with wood. This rare and little-known piece is marked by a particularly intricate construction, made possible by the choice of timber and a manufacturing technique that borrows processes from naval architecture.
Seki-Han consists of two vertical wooden blades enclosing a tubular light source, joined at either end by chromed metal fittings. Light is emitted symmetrically and indirectly from both sides, with the materiality and warmth of the wood softening the luminous flow.
The solid wood is cut at the centre in a way that interrupts the grain and helps to control deformation over time. In the original model, the chosen wood was Douglas fir, an evergreen conifer native to the coastal regions of North America: a naturally stable material, well suited to ensuring that the two blades remain perfectly straight. For the new release, ash wood has been chosen instead. The wood is cut with an advanced CNC milling machine in Northern Italy and subjected to a special heat treatment that dries the wood fibers, preventing warping over time. The natural characteristics of the material ensure that each piece has a unique character.
The material presence of wood and its ability to modulate and warm light are defining traits of Seki-Han, further accentuated in the new edition. In a decision made by Flos and Tobia Scarpa himself, the two wooden blades – originally fixed and symmetrical – are now anchored to an advanced fastening system that allows them to move and rotate around the central light body. This enables variable light emission, no longer strictly symmetrical. Even when almost completely closed, a sliver of light remains visible, creating a highly poetic effect. To underscore the aesthetic refinement of the blades, the overall height of the lamp has been increased from 140 to 185 cm. The floor lamp therefore becomes a living presence, interacting with its user and its surroundings through the evocative immateriality of light and the tactile quality of wood.
The 2025 version also features a redesigned base. Once again in collaboration with Tobia Scarpa, both geometry and materials have been rethought. In place of the original lacquered wooden cap attached to the body of the lamp, the new base is made of raw black iron and is separated from the vertical blades by a collar. This gives the lamp a more airy, suspended appearance. Seki-Han has now also been redesigned and proposed in an elegant suspension version. Identical to the floor model in both design and light source, it differs in the slightly shorter length of the body, here 168 cm, suspended horizontally.
To bring the lighting system up to date, the original fluorescent tube – now obsolete – has been replaced by a linear LED light source: a custom luminous tube developed by Flos specifically for this product, with a warm colour temperature and dimmer function integrated into the power cable.
The need for a tailor-made light source stemmed from the desire for a warmer tone, better suited to the essence of the wood and the lamp’s use in residential settings. The technological update preserves the form of the original fluorescent sockets while offering the added benefit of uniform 360° light emission, an essential feature not aesthetically speaking but also to support the new variable opening of the two blades.
Floor lamp providing direct and indirect light, with symmetrical and asymmetrical distribution and variable light intensity
Materials: wood, iron
Light source: LED 2700 kelvin, CRI 90, dimmable. The lamp can also be fitted with standard LED tubular light sources (T8)
