The Lighting Designs of Achille Castiglioni

Achille Castiglioni is an internationally acknowledged master of design.

Born in 1918, during his fifty-two-year career, Castiglioni designed and collaborated on almost 150 objects, including many of our favourite lighting designs from Flos. MoMA in New York features 14 of his works and he has received seven Compasso d'Oro awards.

Castiglioni’s creative method seems so lucid and logical it could be an example taken from a manual on the design process. Castiglioni nonetheless acknowledges the standard principles of his practice: “ Start from scratch. Stick to common sense. Know your goals and means.” Each Castiglioni object is a different character.

Castiglioni’s ideas are often inspired by everyday things and “Design demands observation” has become one if his many mottoes.

Taraxacum, Viscontea & Gatto Lamps

Inspired by George Nelson’s 1950s experiments with metal-frame lamp structures, Taraxacum, Viscontea and Gatto are decorative luminous sculptures in which the white steel wire frame is formed and sprayed with a cocoon-like film of plastic polymers. Taraxacum is the latin word for “dandelion”, while Gatto means “cat”.

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Taccia Table / Floor Lamp

Taccia is the upside-down version of a hanging lamp. The convex surface of a white aluminium dome is positioned on top of a deep, translucent glass bowl and becomes the reflecting screen of the table lamp.

To control its glare, the incandescent bulb is hidden inside the metal base, corrugated better disperse the bulb’s heat. The glass bowl can rotate to adjust the light direction.

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Arco Floor Lamp

A street lamp was the springboard for Arco, a ceiling lamp that does not require holes in the ceiling. The light source is projected eight feet away from the base, leaving enough room to serve dinner and sit at the table. The lamp can be moved by two people by inserting a broomstick through the hole in the marble base.

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Snoopy Table Lamp

So named because of its thrusting beagle-like nose, Snoopy rests on a tilted marble base with a small knob as a then-innovative dimmer. The three cooling holes in the might-weight aluminium reflector make it resemble a bowling ball.

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Parentesi Floor Lamp

An adjustable spotlight moves up and down a cable that hangs from a hook in the ceiling and is kept in tension by a cast-iron counterweight which barely touches the floor. The core of this minimal fixture is the parenthesis that gives it its name, the shaped tubular support that holds the light source in place by mechanical friction with the tense cable.

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Fucsia Suspension Lamp

Th light source is contained within a reversed glass cone, sanded at the bottom to avoid glare, whose edge is protected by a silicone ring. Fucsia is named after the similarly shaped flower.

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