Being himself something of a rock star designer, it was little surprise that Tom Dixon would have conceived a European “tour” to launch a series of new products over the last several months. But after successful events in Copenhagen and Paris, a second escalation of the coronavirus forced him to show up in Stockholm this past February as – we wouldn’t kid you – a hologram of himself.

A fourth such event, 24 Hours in Milan, is on the schedule for Tuesday, April 13, in Italy’s capital of style. But Milan, like the rest of the country, has been grappling with on and off lockdowns (including a controversial three-day Easter moratorium this past weekend) – so it is once again a physical impossibility for Dixon to host the festivities in person.

Nevertheless, his British design powerhouse Tom Dixon Studio continues to grace the aesthetic landscape with boldly exciting new pieces. And specifically launching on the 13th will be their most prodigious chandelier ever, appropriately named BURST. To show it off, they’ve used computer generated imagery to “install” ten of the spectacular lighting fixtures at the Brutalist Chiesa di san Nicolao della Flue, the astonishingly modern church designed by renowned architect Ignazio Gardella, and built between 1968-1970.

The new chandelier is very much intended as a statement, to fill ceiling spaces otherwise devoid of visual stimulus. Nodding to the designer’s signature “bubble” silhouettes, the orbs (there are 12 to a fixture) were actually inspired by molecular structures, and meant to invoke familiar notions of the “space age.” It’s available in both copper and chrome finishes.

Dixon explains, “For many years, we have been making bigger clusters of pendant lamps, which seem to be replacing more conventional chandeliers in lobbies, in dining rooms or in entrance halls. BURST is a way of getting an even more dynamic and three-dimensional array of lighting, without lots of dangling wires.”

It’s almost worth getting a bigger house for.