AJ Eklipta Outdoor Wall Lamp

Designed by Arne Jacobsen in 1956 for Rødovre Town Hall, the AJ Eklipta is a hemispherical opal-glass lamp originally made in Ø350 and Ø450, used both indoors on stairways and outdoors; a Ø220 version was later added for St Catherine's College, England. Admired for its timeless simplicity, it is used worldwide across many architectural settings.

Rødovre Town Hall was one of Jacobsen's defining architectural commissions, and like his later SAS Royal Hotel, he treated it as a total work — designing fittings and lighting alongside the building itself. The Eklipta is architecture distilled into a lamp: a pure hemisphere of opal glass whose layered construction lets the whole surface glow evenly, with a softly luminous ring at the rim and no visible fixings to interrupt the geometry. The smallest size was created when Jacobsen designed St Catherine's College in Oxford, where the lamp again served both interiors and outdoor walls. Louis Poulsen, the Copenhagen lighting house and Jacobsen's lifelong manufacturing partner, has produced it ever since.

Outdoors, the Eklipta brings a calm, even glow to entrances, garden walls, balconies and covered passageways. Because the light is diffused rather than directional, it flatters facades without harsh shadows — mount a pair symmetrically beside a front door for a quietly formal welcome, or run several along a wall for gentle wayfinding. Its disc-like profile hugs the wall, a practical virtue on narrow balconies and walk-ups in dense Asian cities where every centimetre counts. The design moves seamlessly indoors too; see the indoor version and companions in our wall lamps collection, or read our guide to designer lighting for small apartments for more on compact-space lighting.

Explore more of the architect's designs in our Arne Jacobsen collection, or browse the wider range in our Louis Poulsen collection.

Light source: E27 (E26 compatible), 1 bulb, max 33 W. IP20. Bulb not included — we recommend an E27 LED (8–10 W, 1055 lm), 2700–3000 K. Installation by a certified electrician.