A pendant light and room divider made of luffa

Designer Samer Selbak designed a pendant light and a room divider made of two fundamentally different materials: steel and luffa.

Called the Luffa Project, it centres around the luffa plant. The fruit of this plant from the pumpkin, squash and gourd family can be eaten when young. However, it becomes too fibrous when it matures, making it suitable for its best-known use: a scrubbing sponge.

Selbak used luffa to create two objects, combining the material with steel, “to linger on the tension between the controlled and geometric presence of man-manufactured-materials and the unpredictable and wild qualities of the organic material”.

The first object, a pendant light is called Saffeer, is horizontally suspended. To make the light, luffa fibres were carefully treated, flattened and sewn into a trapezoid shape with two different textures. Each side has a different colour, and was dyed using traditional natural colouring. The inner body is made of steel.

Reef is a space divider, acting as both a functional object and a sculptural piece. Dyed luffa fibres are treated and sewn into a tapestry. Both air and light can pass through. The structure is held by steel bars.

Photos: Samer Selbak