John Tree's Hoop Lamp Pairs Brutalist Pine Block with Veneer Ring

By Daniel Okafor

Designer John Tree has created the Hoop Table Lamp for Finnish brand Vaarni, joining a solid pine base to a hooped shade of thin pine veneer. The lamp was made locally in Jurva, Finland, from Finnish pine sourced in a sustainably managed forest.

Tree describes the design as a marriage of two opposing characters. "One is this heavy, almost brutalistic block of solid pine that forms a stable structural element through which a single cut is made to support the second element – a hoop of thin veneer which forms a diffuser and allows light to come through in an almost magical way," he told Dezeen.

The result is monolithic and, somehow, weightless at the top. Think of it as a plinth wearing a halo.

How did the material dictate the form?

The hoop contains an integrated light source that produces a diffused glow. Tree calibrated the thickness of the pine to how much light it would let through, rather than to any pre-set drawing. The size of the shade followed the same logic.

"It was in some ways an exercise in reducing the two elements to their simplest geometric forms, yet governed very much by what material would allow," he said.

Physics set the ceiling. "For example, we discovered that if the thin veneer hoop became any bigger, it started to distort under its own weight," Tree continued. "Thickening it was not an option, as this stopped light from going through so we naturally arrived at an optimum form defined by the material."

So the lamp's proportions are less a design decision than a negotiation. The wood won.

Why pine, and why Vaarni?

Vaarni is known for its pine furniture and accessories, and the brand's command of the material was the point of the collaboration. Tree has worked with pine before, but never probed its properties this deeply.

"The expertise that Vaarnii have with this material meant that we could do some very precise and complex technical details," Tree said.

"It was interesting to see how much a material can be elevated with care and precision in its manufacture," he added.

His verdict on the piece is fond, and brief: "Hoop is a little celebration of pine, a humble material that can do some amazing things."

Where does this sit in Vaarni's catalogue?

The brand has form with sculptural pine. It has previously shown what it called "brutal and sophisticated" furniture at 3 Days of Design in Copenhagen, and it designed a chair and footstool with Faye Toogood.

Hoop extends that lineage from seating into lighting, and it suggests the brand's pine-first identity can survive translation into glow. Whether veneer-and-block becomes a Vaarni signature, or a one-off experiment, depends on what the material allows next. On this evidence, it allows plenty.