12 luminaires made from wood

A striking trend in lighting in recent years has been for luminaires with wooden housings. From spotlights to streetlights to emergency lighting signs, they’re all getting a natural makeover with sustainable materials. Here Circular Lighting Report editor Ray Molony selects a dozen exemplars of the look.

Butterfly
Lightly
This sober looking luminaire is radical.The body and end caps are made from Poplar trees while wool felt is used for the gaskets. The suspension is hemp. And it’s all held together with beech dowels. The housing is completely free of metal, plastic and glass. But the most radical bit? The absence of a diffuser. Instead the light distribution is created by the internal profile shape of the fixture, which creates a butterfly-shaped light distribution. There are two LED boards mounted on these shelves giving an 20/80 up/down distribution.

Wooden modular
Kraken
This French luminaire maker is taking things one step further. This 600×600 modular office light is by a firm near Nantes, France, called Kraken. It uses wood but this time wood from reclaimed windows and doors. The founder Nicolas Forget says this is a rare differentiator in a crowded market. He says he was also keen to use reclaimed wood on a technical commercial luminaire rather than on a decorative light. And in another nod to localism and environmentalism, the company won’t export outside France.

Kvisten
Fagerhult
The Kvisten from Fagerhult has a body made of pine plywood sheets with an outer layer of birch. The company says that the luminaire has passed 0-95 per cent humidity testing and the 650C glow wire test and has full third party accredited ENEC safety tests. It has milled endcaps which means that only five safety screws are required for the complete fixture.The reflectors are made from discarded television sets and the louvre has by 50 per cent less plastic compared to the company’s standard microprism.

ALE
Artemide
Another offering from a big brand, this time Italian company Artemide. This is a suspension luminaire called the Adaptive Lighting Experience. The shell is made from 30 per cent natural wood fibres mixed with a base of bio-based or recycled polymers. The wood is waste from the production of bottle stoppers for the spirits industry. The light features two separately controlled emissions and a diffused indirect one. The patented Refractive optical technology ensures uniform, glare-free illumination, perfect for office spaces.

Fermaluce Wood
Creative Cableds
Founded in 2013 in Turin, Italy, Creative Cables has been wowing its design conscious customer base with innovative electrical and lighting products for years. Its big selling range is, as you may have guessed, colourful cables in a variety of finishes. This is the company’s first foray into making a item from wood. Made in Italy, the Fermaluce is an adjustable spotlight in wood. It features an E14 lamp holder. The main body can be tilted up to 90 degrees and rotated up to 315 degrees thanks to its adjustable joint.

Wooden pendants
Stickbulb
Stickbulb, based in New York, makes a range of linear fittings, freestanding units and pendants using salvaged pin-oak, a popular tree in North America due to is fast growth and tolerance to pollution. The company says over 12,500 trees are removed in the city every year. In the past, these were chipped. But now Stickbulb works with the NYC Parks Department to divert the wood from the waste stream and use it instead to make lights. The salvaged wood is processed and milled on the Brooklyn waterfront.

Glow Direct
Lightly

Lightly has been pioneering wooden luminaires in the US commercial market. Its Glow Direct pendant is made from eco-conscious materials, including wood and wool. The design eliminates metal, plastic, and glass, which reduces the environmental impact of its production. Glow Direct offers a glowing arch profile with 100 per cent direct light distribution. It’s available in a selection of different colour temperatures and offers a glare-free lighting experience, making it suitable for spaces focused on sustainability.

Victo 4250
Secto Design
Designed by renowned Finnish architect Seppo Koho, the Victor 4250 is a celebrated design classic that, upon its launch in 2006, played a key role in bringing wooden luminaires into the global design mainstream. Handmade in the town of Heinola, Finland, each luminaire is crafted from PEFC-certified form-pressed birch. The Victor’s iconic silhouette and warm natural glow have made it a favourite among designers and architects. Available in natural birch, white laminated, black laminated, and rich walnut veneer finishes.

K’Dow 7
Kraken Lighting

Kraken Lighting’s K’Dow 7 downlight pairs an aluminum body with oak or ash bezels from reclaimed wood. Offering LED or GU10 modules with dimmable drivers, the company says that the light meets relevant fire safety standards and embraces eco-conscious design. Locally sourced and designed for disassembly, upgradeability and repair, the fixture reflects the brand’s cradle-to-cradle philosophy, prioritising repairability, reuse, and inclusive, small-scale manufacturing.

Arden
Philip Payne
Arden is an emergency exit made with a housing of oak that has 30 per cent less embodied carbon than a standard model. The firm says the sign is crafted from European joinery-grade oak sourced from responsibly managed forests. The unit – which features a Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) battery – is glow-wire tested to 850°C and meets all relevant fire resistance standards.The high-transmission acrylic legend panel comprises up to 90 per cent recycled content.

Downlight
Setup Lighting
Setup Lighting, based in Kalinkovo, Slovakia, specialises in the design and production of lights crafted from natural materials. Options include oak, ash, cherry, and American walnut. Each piece is treated to maintain form stability and can be coated to meet flame-retardant standards required for public buildings. The downlight is the first from Setup. All products pass the glow wire test and receive a special coating to make them flame retardant to DIN 4102 B1.

Colonnade
Stickbulb
Colonnade is part of the Pillar collection, which Stickbulb says ‘explores the softer side’ of the New York-based company. This, its newest collection is formed from an illuminated square pocket within a small circular wooden housing. This module comes in a variety of lengths and can join together in multiples, resulting in an expansive array of standard and customisable sconce, pendant, ceiling-mount, and chandelier configurations. The Colonnade is UL Certified.

Oaken
TRT Lighting
This street light – whose housing is made from European Oak – has achieved a record 3.1 rating under the Cibse circularity measure, TM66.The body is crafted from strips of laminate oak which has been sustainably harvested from a PEFC certified forest. TRT says that the wood used in assembling the structure will be stable and resistant to warping or twisting due to the lamination of kiln-dried oak planks. This stability is achieved through the design and the choice of wood type and drying process. The wood has also been 650C and 850C hot-wire tested.

• See more innovative luminaires up close and personal at the exhibition at  Circular Lighting Live 2025, Recolight’s flagship conference and exhibition, which takes place on Thursday 25 September 2025 at the Minster Building in the City of London. Free to specifiers, Circular Lighting Live 2025 will feature leading experts, specifiers and policy makers who will share their insights into forthcoming standards and legislation, emerging technologies and new business models. More info: www.circularlighting.live