Zaha Hadid’s collaboration with Slamp produced the dramatic and iconic Avia and Aria, in varying versions. She found the perfect alchemy using the company’s polycarbonate, Lentiflex® and Cristalflex® materials, and the result was a fluid, dynamic lighting collection that has impalpable weightlessness and the elegance of plissé. Zaha was inspired by her own architectural works, and without replicating them, created decorative suspensions that avoided traditional archetypes, opting for rigorous mathematics in the placement of the lamellar layers. The lamp’s almost psychedelic effect is created by the layers’ reflecting and multiplying the light. Zaha once again used technology to create a prodigious effect, giving the lamps, shaped much like stalactites, the same sense of wonder often found in nature. Slamp’s creative director, Luca Mazza, managed the project. He remembers the first meeting in London, at the 10, Bowling Green Lane studio. Seated in the prototype room, “I saw her enter the dark room, sit down next to me and begin to sketch the Aria’s shape. Four immediate, steady masterstrokes. She looked at me and said, ‘here it is; now its your turn. Who better to illuminate an object than a lighting design company?’, finishing with, ‘make a suggestion!’. I never expected such an immediate connection, because she had been described as a tough person. Her generosity and trust in a group of young designers like ours touched me, as well as her energy in the 20 concentrated minutes we spent sketching the prototype”. I will never forget the look in her eye as she said, “show me something, be proud of what you make; I am proud of you!”