An umbrella usually remains an umbrella even when it stops doing its job. You close it, tie it up, leave it there in the middle of the terrace like a tired mushroom after a day in the sun. It’s cluttered, it gets windy, it ruins the line of the garden a bit and reminds you that outdoor furniture always has this double life: useful when needed, clumsy when it stays put.
With Anamon, Belgian designer Kris Van Puyvelde tried to get rid of that very problem. Presented at the Salone del Mobile in Milan 2025 for Royal Botania, this garden lamp umbrella opens from top to bottom and, when closed, allows the entire canvas to retract inside the pole. At that point, all that remains is a clean, thin, vertical structure with an integrated LED ring at the top. During the day it shelters from the sun. In the evening it becomes an outdoor lamp. And the umbrella literally disappears.
It opens like an anemone
The most curious part of Anamon lies in the movement. Classic umbrellas open from the center, with the canvas spreading around the pole in a fairly predictable way. Here the structure emerges from the top and descends, with a vertical opening that recalls a sea creature rather than a terrace accessory.
The inspiration comes from a sea anemone, observed during a dive. The reference is immediately clear: the canvas seems to blossom from above, then close again as it rises towards the pole, in a sort of small mechanical choreography. The system is patented and focuses entirely on a simple to see gesture, surprising enough to stop the gaze.
The effect works because it takes away from the umbrella its appearance of being a seasonal object, assembled quickly and endured throughout the summer. Anamon has more the attitude of a piece of furniture designed to remain visible even when the canvas is hidden. A rare thing, considering how many closed umbrellas end up looking like bags hanging from a stick.
When only the light remains
Once closed, the cloth retracts completely into the pole and leaves room for the second function: garden lamp. The integrated LED ring diffuses a warm light, adjustable in intensity, designed to accompany a dinner, an evening on the terrace or that time when the garden begins to become more beautiful because it finally stops cooking.
The system works with a rechargeable battery via USB-C, with declared autonomy of up to 12 hours. The structure also has IP55 certification, therefore protection against dust and splashes of water, an important detail for an object destined to remain outside, amidst heat, humidity, sudden storms and real garden life.
This dual function makes sense especially in well-kept outdoor spaces, where each element must do more than one thing and, possibly, do it discreetly. The traditional umbrella protects during the hottest hours, then stays there. Anamon tries to work even after dark. First shadow, then light. Same object, different presence.
Beautiful, expensive, very important terrace
The delicate point comes when you move from design to wallet. Anamon is a very successful object, original, even hypnotic in the way it opens and closes. However, it remains a product for a high end of the outdoor market: the indicated price is 2,995 euros.
At that price it becomes difficult to treat it like the normal umbrella to buy at the beginning of summer to set up the balcony. Here we are in the territory of luxury outdoor furniture, that for designed gardens, large terraces, houses where even the evening light is thought of together with the materials, the seats, the table and the landscape. But the idea remains strong: a pole, a hidden canvas, a ring of light and the garden that changes face with a single movement.
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