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I have moved to a new apartment in Switzerland and it has these holes for the lights in the ceiling.

I cannot drill the ceiling as I am renting and any kind of modifications will have to be undone.

For now, as a temporary solution, I have hooked the sockets on the cables and screwed in the bulbs and there isn't enough weight, so it just hangs from wires, not elegant but it works as a temporary solution.

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(click to enlarge pictures)

However, in the near future, I plan to get proper lamps, and those will weigh more, so hanging them from cables is not an option, and I am not quite sure what sort of lights I can fit into these holes or how to do it, or where even to start (my first flat in Switzerland).

Does this kind of hole have a standard name so I could google more information myself?
Is there a standard mechanism that can be hooked into these to fit any kind of light or am limited in my choices?

How to fit a chandelier or other heavier lamp into Swiss ceiling hole fitting?

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  • I must say, that's quite a culture difference between Switzerland and the US - I'd be absolutely shocked to walk into an apartment for rent in the US that just had some bare wires dangling from the ceiling and be expected to provide my own lighting fixtures. Plug in lamps, sure, but not hard-wired ceiling fixtures. Heck, we're not legally allowed to do our own wiring of this sort in a rental! Glad you got it sorted, and thanks for posting your answer!
    – FreeMan
    Commented May 26, 2021 at 12:01
  • The newest picture shows a round electrical box in the hole. Is this box metal or plastic? There may be hooks that are designed to fasten securely to such a box. The cam lock hook with spikes would appear to be designed to be secure on wooden structure.
    – Jim Stewart
    Commented May 27, 2021 at 11:04

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Finally, I have gathered all my courage and asked a colleague.

For these type of holes you use these:

enter image description here

They are called Lamp Claws.

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  • Not fitted in my house in Switzerland. never seen them in Jumbo either...
    – Solar Mike
    Commented May 26, 2021 at 7:26
  • @SolarMike I have never seen them before either. You can get them from Galaxus 7 CHF a piece galaxus.ch/en/s4/product/…
    – Matas Vaitkevicius
    Commented May 26, 2021 at 7:29
  • That is a nifty device that appears to be a cam lock. It would depend on the presence of a strong material for the spikes to be driven into on two opposite sides. What above this ceiling is around this hole? There might be a certain orientation required for this to be secure.
    – Jim Stewart
    Commented May 26, 2021 at 12:37
  • The newest picture shows a round electrical box in the hole. Is this box metal or plastic? There may be hooks that are designed to fasten securely to such a box. The cam lock hook with spikes would appear to be designed to be secure on wooden structure.
    – Jim Stewart
    Commented May 27, 2021 at 11:06
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My ceilings here in Switzerland have hooks screwed into them to hang the lamps from.

This means that the cables don't have to bear the mass of the lamp.

Do check what might be behind before you drill holes.

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I cannot drill the ceiling as I am renting and any kind of modifications will have to be undone.

All lamps hanging on their cable (as in your first picture) that I have seem until now had a hook under the cover that takes the lamp's cable and prevents the cable coming out of the ceiling to take all the lamp's weight.
I can't imagine a situation when it's ok to hang a lamp directly onto the cables coming out of the ceiling.

Are you the first one living in a newly built appartment? Then you should agree with your landlord to drill a hole that you don't close when you move out, because the next tenant would want to use it too.
Or could it be that a previous tenant has drilled a hole and closed it so well that you simply don't see it? Bad idea! Now you should find this hole and reuse it, or else you and next tenants would perforate this place as time goes by.

I recommend to ask the landlord how to proceed, if you are unsure if you are allowed to do that.
Be sure you use suitable material and don't hit the cable running in the wall.

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