About the Collection Louis Poulsen PH 5
Poul Henningsen designed the PH 5 in 1958 as a reaction on the ongoing changes of the shape and size of bulbs. It owes its name to the main shade's diameter of 50 cm. At the time of its introduction, he wrote in his typically bold manner how he lost faith in the ability of the incandescent lamp manufacturers to learn to use their common sense or act in the interests of the consumers. "I have accepted this fate and with Louis Poulsen's approval, I designed a PH light that can be used with any kind of lamp, whether a light chain or a 100 watt metallic filament lamp. However, a fluorescent tube in the current shape would be too much!" With the PH 5, Henningsen wanted to improve the lamp's colour rendering. For this reason, he used small red and blue shades to complement the colour in the light spectrum area that is poorly perceived (red and blue). At the same time, the light is subdued in the middle yellow-green area, in which the eye is most sensitive. At that time, nobody could know that the PH 5 would be synonymous of entirely glare-free light, regardless of how the light fixture is installed or which lamp will be used. The red and blue rings are not used anymore to reach a first class light quality. Modern lamps reproduce the daylight much better as during Henningsen's lifetime. However today also, the PH 5 upgrades the most modern interiors with a great variety of colours. In 2020, the product series was extended with unicoloured versions in black, white and ultrablue. In 2022, the PH 5 pastel collection was introduced with the monochrome pastel colours oyster grey and light pink and two pastel combinations, following modern, furnishing trends: oyster grey, blue and light pink and blue, light pink and peach.
View the collection Louis Poulsen PH 5