Sustainability is not something that keeps Michael Anastassiades up at night. The prolific lighting and furniture designer posits that superlative design does not warrant upcycling. Instead, it endures. “Why do you need to recycle when you can have something for a long time?” he asks.
Recognized as the Designer of the Year at Maison & Objet in Paris in January, Anastassiades embraced an opportunity to showcase a decade’s worth of his Mobile Chandelier designs—16 in total—in one place. Not only did the London-based designer put the evolution of his own thinking on display, but he also celebrated his longevity. The pieces “were created over a span of 10 years,” he says, “and they’re still in production and relevant today.”
Further, collaborations with Flos and Herman Miller have allowed Anastassiades to continue to flex his creative muscle through the exploration of forms ranging from geometric lines to organic curves. Innovative in their simplicity, pieces like the Fleet Drinking Fountain or the Spot Stool revolutionize conventional usage as sculptural counterpoints to utilitarianism.
Anastassiades likens his collection of Mobile Chandeliers to a family tree, one whose growth he will continue to oversee as it branches out. Forecasting that his productivity will only flourish over the next decade, he plans to add three mobiles to the lineup every two years. “Maybe in 10 years we will have 30 more pieces in the family,” he says. “It’s very much my vision of what design should be: timeless.”
Photography by Anne-Emmanuelle Thion and Ben Anders
This article originally appeared in HD’s May 2020 issue.
