The project began with a very personal connection to light. I was born in Sweden on December 21, the darkest day of the year, and grew up on the Swedish west coast surrounded by long winters, forests, rock and the sea. In Scandinavia, light is never something taken for granted. Its absence is felt, and its return is something you notice. That relationship stayed with me and became part of the foundation of Mennheim.

I now live and work in Los Angeles, a city almost completely opposite to where I grew up. Here, I am surrounded by intense sunlight, concrete architecture, dry landscapes and a very different kind of rawness. Mennheim exists somewhere between these two environments: the quiet, elemental qualities of Scandinavia and the energy, scale and physicality of Los Angeles.

Every piece is made entirely by hand in my Los Angeles studio. The lamps are cast as a single, solid pour of concrete, rather than assembled from manufactured sections. I work directly with the material and allow the casting process to influence the final form. The concrete can shift, crack, twist or reveal unexpected textures. Rather than correcting these moments, I incorporate them into the design.

I am particularly interested in the tension between control and accident. I create the initial form, but the material ultimately has a voice of its own. No two casts behave exactly the same way, which means that every lamp develops its own character. Small imperfections are not defects to be hidden but evidence of how the object came into existence.

Some pieces incorporate materials and elements connected to my Scandinavian background, including locally sourced Swedish sand. These details are not intended as decoration or nostalgia, but as physical fragments of a place that remains an important part of how I see and make things.

The lamps are intended to exist somewhere between functional lighting and sculpture. They are objects that happen to provide light, but they are equally about form, weight, shadow, texture and atmosphere.

Ultimately, Mennheim is about bringing something elemental into the home.