Lighting by Castiglioni

Did I catch your attention? Well...now you have to read the whole post!

A legend of Italian design, Achille Castiglioni is famous also for his lighting and one thing his daughter recently pointed to me (see my previous post on Achille Castiglioni Studio-museum) is that he always remained faithful to Flos. He was a designer and a gentleman who believed in creating and maintaining a deep relation with one company, instead of jumping to the best financial opportunity.
Designed by Achille Castiglioni and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni for Flos in 1962, the Arco Lamp (above) is one of the classics of modern lighting design and is part of MoMA's permanent collection. This iconic lamp was created only and exclusively for a table, since it is an overhead lighting which does not require ceiling suspensions, even if now showrooms and advertisements position it near sofas or beds. Castiglioni instead was very specific about the function of his creations and he even used to go and talk to vendors to explain it. You all know that the lamp has a base of marble and probably some think that the asymmetric hole in it is only a pleasing aesthetic detail...but...the genius thought that 65 Kg. of marble cannot be easily moved around so, practical mind as he was, he thought that in every house there would be a broom with the exact handle diameter...inserting it in the base allows two people to move the lamp easily.
How clever and functional could that be?


Another iconic lamp, designed by the duo the same year was Taccia and the key design factor was to make the light functional by making it adjustable. Its style is very unique.

Cocoon was created spinning an American new fiber (which was then used to cover boxes of firearms) the same way as cotton candy. Fun!

1988 Taraxacum is beautiful when ON, beautiful when OFF and it can hold from 60 to 200 bulbs.

Giovi takes its name from his daughter Giovanna and again it is an ingenious interpretation of a portable device for drinking when traveling, which he bought for a few Liras back in the '70s (as he used to say of found objects: " Put it there, ideas will come"). The original object made of thin metal consists of two parts attached with short screws that allow the flat object to become a cone.

Diabolo has a hidden pulley which allows to change the height of the light.

you can see more Diabolo below, in one of the photographs taken at Castiglioni studio-museum. with a special permission from La Triennale, just for you, my readers.

Grazie Achille!

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Achille Castiglioni studio-museum