John Tree carves Hoop lamp from solid pine for Vaarni

Designer John Tree has paired an "almost brutalistic block of solid pine" with a hoop of thin veneer to create the Hoop Table Lamp for Finnish brand Vaarni. The light, made locally in Jurva, Finland, uses Finnish pine from a sustainably managed forest.

Vaarni, known for its pine furniture and accessories, gave Tree room to push the material further than he had before. The lamp's form is deceptively simple: two pieces of pine, each reduced to a basic geometric shape, working together.

"One is this heavy, almost brutalistic block of solid pine that forms a stable structural element through which a single cut is made to support the second element – a hoop of thin veneer which forms a diffuser and allows light to come through in an almost magical way," Tree told Dezeen.

What does the material dictate?

The hoop carries an integrated light source and produces a diffused glow. Tree sized the shade and chose the pine's thickness based on how well the material lets light pass through — and the material set hard limits.

"It was in some ways an exercise in reducing the two elements to their simplest geometric forms, yet governed very much by what material would allow," he said.

"For example, we discovered that if the thin veneer hoop became any bigger, it started to distort under its own weight," he continued. "Thickening it was not an option, as this stopped light from going through so we naturally arrived at an optimum form defined by the material."

The designer landed on a shade large enough to glow, thin enough to stay rigid and no more. Make the hoop bigger and it sags; make it thicker and it blocks the light. That tension between veneer's structural and optical limits defines the lamp's final proportions.

A deeper dive into pine

Tree has worked with pine before, but he said he had never previously had the chance to explore the material's properties as deeply as he did on this project. The reason, in his telling, was the manufacturer's expertise.

"The expertise that Vaarnii have with this material meant that we could do some very precise and complex technical details," Tree said.

"It was interesting to see how much a material can be elevated with care and precision in its manufacture," he continued. "Hoop is a little celebration of pine, a humble material that can do some amazing things."

A growing pine catalogue

Hoop joins a Vaarni portfolio built almost entirely on one species. The brand has previously showcased what it described as "brutal and sophisticated" furniture at 3 Days of Design in 2023, and in early 2024 released a chair and footstool with Faye Toogood that resembled oversized lollipop sticks.

For Tree, the project shows what becomes possible when a designer and a manufacturer share deep knowledge of a single, everyday wood — and it positions Hoop as another test case in Vaarni's continuing argument that pine, handled with precision, can carry a sculptural object on its own.