![Rotaliana Light Dolls porcelain table lamps at BERLINRODEO[lab], Uhlandstraße, Berlin](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6a01912392b4ba974d20c3d6/6aedbaf073d26b5404ead913_6aedb6f698646f4acab4d641_rotaliana-light-dolls-berlinrodeo-lab-hero.jpeg)
Events
Porcelain lamps by Giovanni Lauda, inspired by Guys and Dolls. On display in Berlin until January 2027.
The Light Dolls by Rotaliana are now part of BERLINRODEO[lab]. Until January 2027, the collection is on display — and available — in our showroom at Uhlandstraße 170 in Berlin.
The Light Dolls come as a pair — a guy and a doll — two timeless archetypes: the guy bold and broad, the doll slender and poised. Designer Giovanni Lauda took the idea from the 1950 Broadway musical Guys and Dolls. Stripes, triangles, checkerboards and a dragon tattoo give each figure its own character.
![Rotaliana Light Dolls guy and doll porcelain figures at BERLINRODEO[lab]](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6a01912392b4ba974d20c3d6/6aedbabf6e361e0c0965e1d1_6aedba42971998aa255adb2f_rotaliana-light-dolls-guy-and-doll-berlin.jpeg)
The second idea is much older. Figures carrying a vase, a basket or a tray on their head — to carry food or sacred offerings — run all through art, from ancient Egypt to Greece and Rome. In the Light Dolls, the tray becomes the light: a soft glow cast down onto the surface below, with room for a small name card or object. They sit as naturally on a laid table as on a shelf — a small, auspicious gift of light.
There’s no cable. Each Light Doll is cordless and recharges over USB-C, and a single charge runs from around 13–14 hours at full brightness to more than a day turned low. A touch of the tray dims it through three warm whites — 2200, 2700 and 3000K — and because they’re built to handle damp (IP54), they move just as easily to a terrace or garden as to the dinner table.
Each Light Doll is made of premium white porcelain from Jingdezhen, China’s imperial porcelain city, where porcelain has been made for more than a thousand years — luminous, durable, and warm when lit from within.
BERLINRODEO[lab] is a space in Berlin where design, art, objects and brands meet. Things change here all the time, and the Light Dolls are the newest guests. In our red and blue rooms, they show how an object can be a lamp, a sculpture and a story at the same time.
![Rotaliana Light Dolls in the red and blue rooms of BERLINRODEO[lab], Berlin](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6a01912392b4ba974d20c3d6/6aedbabf6e361e0c0965e1d5_6aedba4236ddbacf06f4fc36_rotaliana-light-dolls-berlinrodeo-lab-showroom-berlin.jpeg)
The Light Dolls are on display and available at BERLINRODEO[lab] until January 2027.
Uhlandstraße 170, 10719 Berlin
lab@berlinrodeo.com · Tel. 030 28047815
They’re low, warm and portable, so instead of lighting a whole room from above they create a soft pool of light exactly where you want it — a dining table, a shelf, a bedside. Turning the main light down and letting a small source like this lead is one of the fastest ways to make a space feel calmer and more intimate.
Because it does three things at once: it’s a light, a sculpture and a conversation piece. A portable porcelain figure brings character to a corner a ceiling light never could — and because you can move it, the same object can reshape a room through the day, from a bright working glow to something candle-soft after dark.
Layer it. Dim or switch off the big ceiling light and place two or three small warm sources at different heights — table, shelf, floor. A pair like the Light Dolls, one guy and one doll, already gives you that rhythm of light and shadow that makes a room feel lived-in.
Yes — they’re fully cordless, so the light goes wherever the moment is: dining table, desk, balcony. Each one recharges over USB-C in about four to five hours and then runs for roughly 13–14 hours at full brightness, or up to around 40 hours turned low — enough for several evenings between charges.
Yes. A touch dimmer built into the tray takes them from bright to barely-there, across three warm whites — 2200K, 2700K and 3000K — so you can tune the mood from a soft working light to a candle-warm glow for dinner.
Yes. They’re rated for damp conditions (IP54), so they’re as at home on a terrace, a balcony or in the garden as they are on the dining table — a rare thing for a porcelain lamp.
The Light Dolls are made of premium white porcelain from Jingdezhen, China’s imperial porcelain city, where porcelain has been made for more than a thousand years. Porcelain glows soft and warm from within and has a tactile, handcrafted quality you feel up close — closer to an object than an appliance.
Giovanni Lauda, for Rotaliana. He took the idea from the 1950 musical Guys and Dolls — the lamps come as a pair, each with its own stripes, triangles, checkerboards or even a dragon tattoo — and from a far older image: human figures carrying a tray of offerings on their heads, running through art from ancient Egypt onward. Small porcelain figures like these were once given as good-luck charms, which is why a Light Doll reads as a gift of light with an auspicious meaning.
At BERLINRODEO[lab], Uhlandstraße 170, 10719 Berlin, until January 2027. They’re on display and available there — come by to see how they change a room in person.