Stele

Stele is the only Swiss house in this selection. The workshop sits in Moutier, in the Bernese Jura, and produces in medium and limited runs, with design and manufacturing in the same place.

Steve Léchot, born in Orvin in 1968, studied sculpture at ECAL between 1989 and 1994 before setting up his lighting business in Moutier in 2003. His first international recognition did not carry his own brand: the One by One floor lamp, drawn in 2002 and produced by Belux, is assembled by hand from stacked pieces of crumpled polyester non-woven, in a sheltered workshop.

The house catalogue runs to six lines: Parallel, ZEN-X, ZEN-X², Totem, Zen and I See. One principle recurs across them, multiple light sources controlled separately, each one switchable, dimmable and rotatable, which lets indirect general light and a directional spot work together in one fitting. Totem, created in 2008, won a Red Dot Design Award, ZEN-X a Red Dot in 2023, Parallel a German Design Award in 2024, and Zen a German Design Award in 2021.

Artopia carries Stele in Geneva. Six floor lamps make for a short catalogue, so the choice comes down to how the corner of the room is actually used.