VL 45 Radiohus Pendant

Designed by Vilhelm Lauritzen around 1941 for the Danish Broadcasting Corporation's Radiohuset (originally the "Office Lamp"), the VL 45 features a glossy, three-layer mouth-blown glass shade with untreated brushed-brass details. Offered in opal white plus pale rose, pale yellow and amber.

Vilhelm Lauritzen ranks among the founding figures of Danish functionalism, and Radiohuset — the broadcasting house he designed in Copenhagen — is one of the movement's defining buildings. In the functionalist spirit, Lauritzen shaped the building as a complete whole, designing its lighting together with Louis Poulsen, and the fixtures created for its offices, studios and foyers are reissued today as the VL series. The VL 45's softly swelling glass profile shows how different Lauritzen's sensibility was from the strict, layered geometry of his contemporary Poul Henningsen: where the PH lamps calculate their light, the VL 45 simply glows. Each shade is mouth-blown in three layers of glass, so the surface carries a deep, glossy lustre when lit and a quiet, milky presence when off, while the untreated brass is left to patinate naturally over the years.

That triple-layer glass makes the VL 45 an unusually flattering light over a dining table, kitchen counter or bedside. The whole shade illuminates evenly, casting a warm, even glow with no harsh shadows — well suited to long dinners and relaxed evenings. In compact homes, including the smaller apartments common in Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong and other dense Asian cities, a single pendant of this character can carry an entire room; hung low over a small dining table it defines the eating area without taking up any floor space, and a row of two or three in mixed colours turns a plain kitchen counter into the heart of the home.

The VL 45 sits naturally among the Danish classics in our pendant lamps collection, and a cordless version is available among our portable lamps if you want the same glass glow on a terrace or windowsill. If you are weighing it against the most famous Danish pendant of all, our PH 5 pendant buying guide is a helpful place to compare.

Light source: E14, 1 bulb, max 60 W. IP20, indoor. Bulb not included — we recommend an E14 LED (4–4.5 W, 470 lm).