A 10-metre high Christmas tree made of 245 pendant lights and installed inside The Shard in London, collections inspired by the stars, illusion, infinity, the devine, architecture and myth, Lee Broom’s work is infused by a background in theatre and fashion and a love of experiment, craft and heritage. Here, More Space visits New York Design Festival where Broom’s latest range transforms the designer’s Tribeca loft.
Lee Broom and the alchemy of light
Lighting designer Lee Broom and the majestic King. From the designer's latest collection Alchemy, launched during New York Design Week, King is the masterful centrepiece. Individual brushed metal leaves, folded and tapered by hand, each ring concealing a soft glow. Photography by Arthur Woodcroft, courtesy Lee Broom.
Gemini is a nod to Greek mythology, its two opposing halves creating one illuminated pendant. Made of brushed brass its concealed construction is hidden. Its simplicity allows flexibility, expanding horizontally and vertically to form a myriad of bespoke constellations. Photography by Arthur Woodcroft, courtesy Lee Broom.
Development sketches for Lee Broom's Solstice collection. Courtesy Lee Broom.
Development sketches for Lee Broom's Vesper collection, inspired by the expressed form of brutalist architecture. Courtesy Lee Broom.
Broom's Tribeca loft is the designer's base when in New York, here featuring the Hanging Hoop Chair designed in 2015 and the Lens Flair Table Lamp. In 2020, Hoop featured in Beyoncé's visual album release for Black is King. Photography by Stephen Kent Johnson, courtesy Lee Broom.
Lee Broom's Tribeca tables and streamlined White Street Sofa designed with two, three and corner seats for multiple configurations. With the Carousel chandelier in a polished gunmetal finish, the Mini Crescent Table Lamp and the Lens Flair Pendant in black. Photography by Stephen Kent Johnson, courtesy Lee Broom.
Inside Lee Broom's loft where art and design riff. Photography by Stephen Kent Johnson, courtesy Lee Broom.
The study features the Crescent Light that balances brushed brass with opaque glass. Photography by Stephen Kent Johnson, courtesy Lee Broom.
On the terrace with views to the brutalist AT&T Long Lines building, One World Trade Center, and Hertzog & De Meuron's Jenga tower, are Broom's Musico table and chairs. Photography by Stephen Kent Johnson, courtesy Lee Broom.
Arriving in Tribeca the street is buzzing with spring, white overhead one of the city’s newest towers, the Jenga building by Herzog & de Meuron, faces off the iconic brutalist style AT&T Long Lines building, a favourite of Broom’s (and reportedly an NSA spy hub), and the local Civic Centre Synagogue with its ballooning concrete façade. Tribeca is one of the city’s oldest neighbourhoods and Manhattan’s most architecturally eclectic, its streets packed with beautifully detailed neoclassical revival buildings, wrought iron and columned, towering newbies and low-rise lofts.
On the top floor of a handsome 19th century loft building is Lee Broom’s apartment, transformed into a gallery to show his latest collection that is inspired by the book ‘The Alchemist’ by Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho. With a nod to the cultural history of New York, objects in the MET were a big inspiration, the lighting draws on themes of alchemy, focused, as Broom remarks, ‘on the balance and interconnection of sculptural metal forms containing light’.
‘The Alchemist resonated with me on many levels. It occurred to me that we designers and artists are also alchemists, physically creating something from nothing that has function, beauty and purpose…’
Lee Broom
‘These stories from mythology and folklore are rich with drama and intrigue. They become a great source of inspiration and knowledge and the stories still resonate and influence the world today. They are metaphors for life.’
Lee Broom
For Broom, The Alchemist’s classic tale of trusting your heart and following your dreams is intuitively linked to the design process. ‘The Alchemist resonated with me on many levels,’ Broom adds at the launch of the collection. ‘It occurred to me that we designers and artists are also alchemists, physically creating something from nothing that has function, beauty and purpose. These stories from mythology and folklore are rich with drama and intrigue. They become a great source of inspiration and knowledge…’
The collection was designed in New York and moving from room to room, its story unfolds. Mythos, King, Solstice and Gemini, feature pendant lights, chandeliers and wall sconces, each made from welded brass and combined with glass, acrylic and leather, every piece manufactured by hand in Broom’s London factory. In the craftsmanship of King for example, each leaf is laser cut, folded by hand, brushed and then ionised. A central piece in the collection, it was inspired by medieval coronets from the MET where Broom spent time sketching ideas for the collection. The glow of its sculptural metal form draw you into the room, while its shadows and gradients add drama.
Lee Broom's Aurora 2 Tier XXL chandelier with Musico table and chairs in polished chrome, velvet and glass. Photography by Stephen Kent Johnson, courtesy Lee Broom.
Beneath the staircase is the Lens Flair Lamp and Time Machine clock carved from Carrara marble in a limited edition of 10 to celebrate Lee Broom's 10th anniversary in design. Photography by Stephen Kent Johnson, courtesy Lee Broom.
With views over Tribeca, the bathroom features the sculptural Crescent Light over the bathtub. Photography by Stephen Kent Johnson, courtesy Lee Broom.
‘I always design primarily from a place of emotion, which emphasises the notion that everything is connected, physically and spiritually…’
Lee Broom
The concept of alchemy is embodied in the mix of materials selected for the collection. It’s the first time Broom has introduced blackened brass and the Mythos pendant, for example, is offset by a hand-stitched leather strap with interconnected links that magically hold the illuminated orb. As an artisan designer it's the mercurial mixes that create beauty from simple elements, while their construction methods offer joyful details and clever mechanisms. The big theme here is personalisation and play, each range seen as a building block for ideas to flow. And just like the journey that unfolds on the pages of The Alchemist, every time you experience Lee Broom’s lighting you see something new.
The Lee Broom collection is available exclusively in South East Asia from Space – Australia, and Space – Singapore and Malaysia.
