Posts: Italian lighting, lighting project and more
This section is dedicated to design and the history of architecture. Through historical analysis, we’ll try to understand current needs and future goals. We’ll be talking about lighting project competitions, the relationship between light and architecture, the history of Italian lighting, the history of Italian design, access to the labour market, industry associations and the real downstream activities behind the multinational manufacturers of lamps, regulations, architecture and all the sectors revolving around lighting. We’ll try to analyze changes in ways of living and how they have affected the way we conceive of lighting projects.
January 23, 2023
Light source design (Comparing light sources - Photo courtesy of Petrucci Marco Lighting Design) Energy efficiency is mostly based on purely quantitative considerations. Banning halogen bulbs will significantly lower the quality of light in our homes. In halogen lamps, light is emitted by a metal filament which is made incandescent by the passage of electric current. The Scintilla lamp designed in 1972 and produced by Fontana Arte, with its minimalist design and maximum light output, is the epitome of the sparkling light concept. In this case, what would happen if we changed the source? The result would be a different design, lower colour rendering, and consequently less light. The Parantesi lamp, designed in 1971 for Flos, the Arco lamp from 1962, and other design icons would be deprived of their identity. A LED (the acronym for Light Emitting Diode) is a semiconductor device capable of emitting light radiation. Its special feature is the miniaturization and control of the single point of light emission. An increase in the amount of light emitted is directly proportional to the increase in the amount of heat produced, a relationship to which the durability of the device is closely linked. LEDs are increasingly being used…
January 23, 2023
Light source design (Comparing light sources - Photo courtesy of Petrucci Marco Lighting Design) Energy efficiency is mostly based on purely quantitative considerations. Banning halogen bulbs will significantly lower the quality of light in our homes. In halogen lamps, light is emitted by a metal filament which is made incandescent by the passage of electric current. The Scintilla lamp designed in 1972 and produced by Fontana Arte, with its minimalist design and maximum light output, is the epitome of the sparkling light concept. In this case, what would happen if we changed the source? The result would be a different design, lower colour rendering, and consequently less light. The Parantesi lamp, designed in 1971 for Flos, the Arco lamp from 1962, and other design icons would be deprived of their identity. A LED (the acronym for Light Emitting Diode) is a semiconductor device capable of emitting light radiation. Its special feature is the miniaturization and control of the single point of light emission. An increase in the amount of light emitted is directly proportional to the increase in the amount of heat produced, a relationship to which the durability of the device is closely linked. LEDs are increasingly being used…
January 16, 2023
Colour adaptation properties of the eye (Prism by Isaac Newton - Photo courtesy of Petrucci Marco Lighting Design) The technical data sheet of each individual luminaire and light source contains a technical fact of fundamental importance: the colour rendering index. Light sources can have very different colour rendering characteristics, depending on the emission spectrum. In order to achieve colour rendering similar to that which we are used to during daylight hours, the light source must have a continuous spectrum (see incandescent lamp spectrum), while light-emitting diodes have relatively irregular spectra. The colour rendering index (CRI) varies on a scale of…
July 1, 2019
Dan Flavin | Light and color Dan Flavin (New York, 1 April 1933 - 29 November 1996) From 19th February to 28th June, fourteen luminous works by the minimalist American artist Dan Flavin, dating from the late 1960s to the 1990s, will be exhibited at the Cardi Gallery in Milan. These works are the result of the artist’s research into the notions of light, color, and sculptural space: how light alters space, creating a relationship between light and architecture. “It is what it is and it ain’t nothin’ else”, said Dan Flavin, guiding us towards an interpretation of the pure-visibility…
March 19, 2018
Light + Building 2018 Frankfurt (18 March 2018 - 23 March 2018) DESIGN SHEET Indirect Lighting devices for wall or suspension applications. Monocromatic LED source, homogeneous and comfy light output. 5,3 meters Glazed-Iron-Bar. Remote control power-supply. Lighting source: LED 250W Dims: Ø1700 mm 2017 | Lighting Device | Mitic RETAIL SHEET The round shape has a sort of resilient magnetic power catching the viewer's eye. The Disk is a shape that convey dynamism; its topology recalls a perfect and changeless motion, no beginning and no end, an unaltered light similar to one that is created by this lamp. They all…
March 9, 2018
Contest Waterfront Ancona 3.0 Public Competition (Ancona, 9 March 2018) Con riferimento al concorso in oggetto si intende svolgere partitamente le seguenti considerazioni su aspetti del Bando di concorso (“Bando”) e del Disciplinare di gara (“Disciplinare”) che, oltre a risultare di difficile comprensione, presentano contraddizioni tali da inficiarne la legittimità. 1 – AFFIDAMENTO DEI SUCCESSIVI LIVELLI DI PROGETTAZIONE DEFINITIVA ED ESECUTIVA Risulta evidente la contraddizione esistente tra quanto riportato nel Bando e quanto indicato nel Disciplinare in ordine all'esito della procedura di selezione in parola. Infatti, mentre nel Bando viene rappresentato che i lavori “saranno affidati”, nel Disciplinare contraddittoriamente si…
September 30, 2017
Officina Meccanica G.R.A.M. Gerardo Rosamilia (portrait) 1916 – The State choses to take immediate action in manufacturing and production planning of military equipment; The BPD (Bombrini Parodi Delfino) installation – the largest Italian manufacturing plants for explosive equipment with roughly about 20.000 employees - established in 1935 in a free zone – recognized as Municipality of Colleferro (Comune di Colleferro). 1935 – The Council of Colleferro is officially comes into being on June 13th, 1935. Although did not yet exist by World War I , Colleferro had a dual structure; like many other towns and an underground city. Commencing at…
September 22, 2016
Italian Design | Piero Castiglioni Lighting designer At a distance of 20 years from the article of Paola Antonelli Associate Curator, Department of Architecture and Design (© 1997 The Museum of Modern Art in New York) today the Castiglioni family continues to be the protagonist. Piero Castiglioni was born in Lierna on Como Lake, in January 1944, eldest son of Livio works in sign of Italian design. Piero experiments of light sources and his life dedicated exclusively to the study of lighting. The project meets the light and born the figure of the lighting designer.With the architect Gae Aulenti and Renzo…
January 16, 2023
Colour adaptation properties of the eye (Prism by Isaac Newton - Photo courtesy of Petrucci Marco Lighting Design) The technical data sheet of each individual luminaire and light source contains a technical fact of fundamental importance: the colour rendering index. Light sources can have very different colour rendering characteristics, depending on the emission spectrum. In order to achieve colour rendering similar to that which we are used to during daylight hours, the light source must have a continuous spectrum (see incandescent lamp spectrum), while light-emitting diodes have relatively irregular spectra. The colour rendering index (CRI) varies on a scale of…
July 1, 2019
Dan Flavin | Light and color Dan Flavin (New York, 1 April 1933 - 29 November 1996) From 19th February to 28th June, fourteen luminous works by the minimalist American artist Dan Flavin, dating from the late 1960s to the 1990s, will be exhibited at the Cardi Gallery in Milan. These works are the result of the artist’s research into the notions of light, color, and sculptural space: how light alters space, creating a relationship between light and architecture. “It is what it is and it ain’t nothin’ else”, said Dan Flavin, guiding us towards an interpretation of the pure-visibility…
March 19, 2018
Light + Building 2018 Frankfurt (18 March 2018 - 23 March 2018) DESIGN SHEET Indirect Lighting devices for wall or suspension applications. Monocromatic LED source, homogeneous and comfy light output. 5,3 meters Glazed-Iron-Bar. Remote control power-supply. Lighting source: LED 250W Dims: Ø1700 mm 2017 | Lighting Device | Mitic RETAIL SHEET The round shape has a sort of resilient magnetic power catching the viewer's eye. The Disk is a shape that convey dynamism; its topology recalls a perfect and changeless motion, no beginning and no end, an unaltered light similar to one that is created by this lamp. They all…
March 9, 2018
Contest Waterfront Ancona 3.0 Public Competition (Ancona, 9 March 2018) Con riferimento al concorso in oggetto si intende svolgere partitamente le seguenti considerazioni su aspetti del Bando di concorso (“Bando”) e del Disciplinare di gara (“Disciplinare”) che, oltre a risultare di difficile comprensione, presentano contraddizioni tali da inficiarne la legittimità. 1 – AFFIDAMENTO DEI SUCCESSIVI LIVELLI DI PROGETTAZIONE DEFINITIVA ED ESECUTIVA Risulta evidente la contraddizione esistente tra quanto riportato nel Bando e quanto indicato nel Disciplinare in ordine all'esito della procedura di selezione in parola. Infatti, mentre nel Bando viene rappresentato che i lavori “saranno affidati”, nel Disciplinare contraddittoriamente si…
September 30, 2017
Officina Meccanica G.R.A.M. Gerardo Rosamilia (portrait) 1916 – The State choses to take immediate action in manufacturing and production planning of military equipment; The BPD (Bombrini Parodi Delfino) installation – the largest Italian manufacturing plants for explosive equipment with roughly about 20.000 employees - established in 1935 in a free zone – recognized as Municipality of Colleferro (Comune di Colleferro). 1935 – The Council of Colleferro is officially comes into being on June 13th, 1935. Although did not yet exist by World War I , Colleferro had a dual structure; like many other towns and an underground city. Commencing at…
September 22, 2016
Italian Design | Piero Castiglioni Lighting designer At a distance of 20 years from the article of Paola Antonelli Associate Curator, Department of Architecture and Design (© 1997 The Museum of Modern Art in New York) today the Castiglioni family continues to be the protagonist. Piero Castiglioni was born in Lierna on Como Lake, in January 1944, eldest son of Livio works in sign of Italian design. Piero experiments of light sources and his life dedicated exclusively to the study of lighting. The project meets the light and born the figure of the lighting designer.With the architect Gae Aulenti and Renzo…
Great Masters
What does living mean today? What are our homes like? Our workplaces? Recreational spaces? How do we structure our day? What differences can we observe in the ways of living seen through the recent designs of homes built in faraway places in different climates and contexts? Without a doubt, in lighting projects, light and architecture play a fundamental role in answering our questions, together with technology and IT, which has now invaded and transformed our habits, going beyond Italian lighting.
December 27, 2022
Great Masters | Ricardo Bofill Ricardo Bofill (portrait) "Architecture must be specific to each place". Ricardo Bofill His architect father directly involves him in his projects and construction processes. Together they travelled to Italy and Spain to study vernacular architecture. He graduated in 1959 in architecture from the School of Fine Arts in Geneva. Ricardo Bofill opened his own studio in the 1960s, when he was only 23 years old. He designs buildings, structures and parks all over the world: from the National Theatre in Catalonia to the Manzanares Park in Madrid, from the Crescent in Salerno to the Palacrociere…
December 12, 2022
Great Masters | Angelo Mangiarotti Angelo Mangiarotti (portrait) "I would say that the fundamental starting point for designing an object of design lies in its usefulness to people. An object that is not born of a need cannot even be considered as belonging to this category, design." Angelo Mangiarotti 26 February 2021 is a significant date because one hundred years ago Angelo Mangiarotti was born in Milan. The Vico Magistretti Foundation celebrated Vico's Hundred Years in 2020. He graduated in Architecture from Milan Polytechnic in 1948. From 1953-1954 he was a visiting professor at the Institute of Design of the…
December 5, 2022
Great Masters | Alessandro Mendini Alessandro Mendini (portrait) "I could avoid designing in order to realise but not to think, write or draw... An interview, a drawing, a small exhibition can tell more about me than a great project" Alessandro Mendini Unlike other architects and designers, he was first a theorist and then a designer. From 1970 to 1976 he directed "Casabella". He relaunched the magazine in an innovative way, approaching the demands of students and the new directions of the radical project (a movement which in Italy was characterised by the deliberate overriding of content over form, of ideology…
November 28, 2022
Great Masters | Enzo Mari Enzo Mari (portrait) "I am an artist and I work like an artist, precisely because of this, because I know what art is, I cannot stand sculpture objects because they are only the fruit of applied arts... The artist is the one who gives form to a collective value, in which everyone recognises themselves." Enzo Mari From October 17, 2020 to September 12, 2021 at the Milan Triennale there is an exhibition "Enzo Mari" curated by Hans Ulrich and Francesca Giacomelli. Stefano Boeri, President of the Triennale Milano, describes it as "a constellation", he says:…
November 23, 2022
Great Masters | Zaha Hadid Zaha Hadid (portrait) "I believe that the function of great architectural projects is precisely to create movement, ferment. The fluid lines (she herself once declared) are nothing more than the adaptation of form to a new concept of space that is more dynamic, flexible and alternative. A multiple and fragmented geometric perspective that reveals the questionability of numbers and formulas" Zaha Hadid Zaha Hadid is the first woman to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004. The first Pritzker Prize winner was Philip Johnson in 1979. Zaha Hadid "the Queen of Curves" was born in…
November 14, 2022
Great Masters | Pietro Chiesa Pietro Chiesa (portrait) Pietro Chiesa was born in Milan in 1892 into an illustrious Ticino family of artists. After an apprenticeship with the most renowned cabinet-makers and decorators in Milan, he opened a glass workshop in 1921, where he worked with artists, italian designer lighting and architects. ("Vetratine" - Pietro Chiesa - Photo courtesy: Archivio storico Chiara Baldacci) He also works on signs, particularly those in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. According to municipal regulations, dictated by Giuseppe Mengoni himself, they must all have a black glass background with gold lettering. He made a stained-glass window…
September 12, 2022
Great Masters | Livio Castiglioni Livio Castiglioni (portrait) In this section we have mentioned some of the great masters of design, lighting design and architecture. Livio Castiglioni has collaborated with most of these figures. The Studio in Via Presolana 5 came to life with him even though this "craft workshop" (where architectural lighting was born) can communicate through inventions, projects, lighting fixtures, lighting technology, the historical archive, ..., we tell about the Great Master through the words of Chiara Baldacci. In 1997, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of Livio Castiglioni's death, she wrote this article. "Researcher in light…
August 11, 2021
Great Masters | Joe Colombo Joe Colombo (portrait) "All objects that are needed in a house must be supplementary to the usable space; therefore they should no longer be called furniture, but rather "equipment". Joe Colombo 1970 Joe Colombo initially worked as a car salesman, just think of the convertible bed he designed in 1969, then he worked as a photographer, in the 1960s he turned to design and in about ten years he became part of the history of Italian design with his projects. Between the pages of the book Joe Colombo - L'invenzione del futuro published by Vitra…
July 28, 2021
Great Masters | Ettore Sottsass Ettore Sottsass (portrait) "The rite of architecture is performed to make real a space that was not real before the rite. Space is real when it is solid with attributes and heavy with meanings, when it is condensed - like a broth - of presences and suggestions, when it drips - like a dense colour - of surprises and transformations, when it pales with shadows and corrupts with light (1956)". (1) Ettore Sottsass After graduating from high school, he attended the Faculty of Architecture at Turin Polytechnic, where he graduated in 1939. In 1947 he…
July 14, 2021
Great Masters | Franco Albini Franco Albini (portrait) "Air and light are the building materials" Franco Albini The Franco Albi Foundation describes him as 'A silent, rigorous, ironic man, Albini worked tirelessly, supported by a moral code that accompanied him throughout his career. He firmly believes in the social role of the architect as a profession serving the people. He considers it the very reason for his existence'. (1) Born in 1905, he was one of a group of young architects who saw architecture as a mission to build the city of the future. As Vico Magistretti recalls, "We kids…
June 30, 2021
Great Masters | Luigi Caccia Dominioni Luigi Caccia Dominioni (portrait) "The role of an architect, I believe, is also to raise a succession of emotions. My entries, my stairs and even my furniture are urban solutions" Luigi Caccia Dominioni "(...) But what has this prestinee de rump ... Alter che prestinee, alter che rump, mumbles the policeman, it is the sculptor Castiglioni who is returning to his studio. So I look closer and see "el prestinee" in his face: imagine, it's him, Giannino, the sculptor I've known forever, for fifteen years I've been with him and his children day and…
June 14, 2021
Great Masters | Cini Boeri Cini Boeri (portrait) "I have always been interested in people and their behaviour. I am a great observer, when I design I like to get in tune with the clients and understand their needs and desires to try to provide them with the best possible solution. " (1) Cini Boeri Cini Boeri and the Via Presolana 5 Studio "Livio, brilliant, unpredictable, very funny friend. A polyglot, in Bilbao when he worked for me on a large showroom, he spoke his Spanish, which was a mixture of Genoese and Venetian, his French was Milanese enriched with…
May 31, 2021
Great Masters | Ingo Maurer Ingo Maurer (portrait) "Without taking risks, without engaging with objects that do not exactly correspond to the established idea of beauty, our ideas will not grow and the aesthetic quality of our work will gradually deteriorate ... Sometimes less taste is more taste." Ingo Maurer Dialogue between Ingo Maurer and Franco Raggi - 20 September 1989 How did you start working with light? Shall we start at the very beginning? If it is important... So I grew up on an island in Lake Constance. My father died when I was fifteen, we were five children,…
May 17, 2021
Great Masters | Gianni Versace Gianni Versace (portrait) "I am not interested in the past, except that it is the way to the future." Gianni Versace The protagonist of this article is an icon of Italian fashion. "The birth of prêt-à-porter: as a need to express new needs and shape new and different social realities. I founded my company in 1975, Gianni Versace in 1978, as did Gianfranco Ferré. Krizia and the Missonis had already been working for years. (...) Fifteen years after his death, what memories do I have of Gianni Versace? That of a fantastic exuberance, of a…
May 3, 2021
Great Masters | Marco Zanuso Marco Zanuso (portrait) "Design is the most sophisticated form of applied art that man can boast. If there is no quality, there is no design. Formal quality communicates beauty and love. Physical quality, on the other hand, depends on how an object is constructed. Once upon a time it was said to be made in a workmanlike manner". Marco Zanuso Marco Zanuso 'Master of product design', as defined by Francois Burkhardt, (1) was born in Milan in 1916. After graduating from the Milan Polytechnic in 1939, he wore the uniform of a staff officer in…
April 19, 2021
Great Masters | Nanda Vigo Nanda Vigo (portrait) "Freedom has always been the basic point from the beginning. I have taken a few risks in life, but without freedom nothing can come out." Nanda Vigo Nanda Vigo was born in Milan on 14 November 1936. She grew up in an environment frequented by artists. After graduating from high school, she enrolled at the Lausanne Polytechnic. After graduating... Dialogue between Nanda Vigo and Franco Raggi - December 2003 What happened to you in the 1960s? I don't know about the 1960s, I can tell you about the 1940s. My enlightenment was…
April 5, 2021
Great Masters | Nikola Tesla Nicola Tesla (portrait) "The best way to fight ignorance is to spread knowledge in a systematic way. With this goal in mind, it is essential to foster the exchange of ideas and human relations." Nikola Tesla Tesla Exhibition Nikola Tesla: a scientist who was historically instrumental in the evolution of electricity and technology is back in the news. (2020 - Milan - Spazio Ventura "Tesla Exhibition" - Photo courtesy: Chiara Menescardi) Spazio Ventura XV presents the "Tesla Exhibition". Milan first and only stop in Italy of Tesla's World Tour. Due to COVID-19 it is suspended.…
March 22, 2021
Great Masters | Gae Aulenti Gae Aulenti (portrait) "I believe that the place is first of all a conceptual fact, that is, a fact of culture; in fact if you work in Paris, in Barcelona, in Milan or in Rome, the cultural conditions are different. Understanding these differences, and getting to know them, becomes a necessity for those who are going to design, because they have to operate in continuity with the tradition of the place." Gae Aulenti (1) Gae Aulenti and the Via Presolana 5 Studio (Livio Castiglioni with Gea Aulenti and Rina Brion - Photo courtesy: Piero Castiglioni)…
March 8, 2021
Great Masters | Gino Sarfatti Gino Sarfatti (portrait) Gino Sarfatti is described as “the genius of the lamp”, “an artist of lighting”, in a Casamica article. He played a pioneering role in the 1950s, also linked to the name of his company, Arteluce, the first Italian company committed to creating modern forms for lighting. When asked "What do you think you are? An artisan?" he replied "Yes, I am an artisan exactly". (1) Born in Venice in 1912, an aeronautical engineer by training, he became a manufacturer and even a salesman, founding a company, Arteluce, in 1936. A multifaceted personality,…
February 22, 2021
Great Masters | Gio Ponti Gio Ponti (portrait) "For life to be great and full it is necessary to put the past and the future into it” Gio Ponti Giovanni Ponti, known as Gio Ponti, was born in Milan on 18 November 1891. During the First World War, he served in the Pontieri Corps of Engineers with the rank of Captain. In 1921 he graduated from the Milan Polytechnic. In 1928, he founded Domus magazine with editor Gianni Mazzocchi. It soon became one of the most important publications dedicated to the theme of contemporary living. He was the first artistic…
February 8, 2021
Great Masters | Bruno Munari Bruno Munari (portrait) Talking to Bruno Munari, an ironic, smiling eighty-year “boy” who plays with light The search for the essential ("less is more"), an almost tormenting research of the entropy in reverse, that means, in conclusion, to regain an order. But as the kite that makes the wind "visible", all of us have learnt from him to see more. And we have also learnt that it is possible to play and make – what a beautiful reference point, this “ludens and faber” together. "One day I went to a stocking factory to see if…
January 27, 2021
Great Masters | Ernesto Gismondi Ernesto Gismondi (portrait) On 31 December 2020, Ernesto Gismondi passed away at the age of 89. "Ernesto Gismondi, a great innovator and friend, has left us. With Artemide he illuminated the world, he was the first to use plastic to make furniture, he sailed with his head held high in the seas of politics and business, and opened up new horizons in design. I will miss his anti-rhetorical genius". Stefano Boeri After graduating from high school, he obtained a degree in aeronautical engineering from the Politecnico di Milano in 1957 and a degree in missile…
December 14, 2020
Great Masters | Vico Magistretti Vico Magistretti (portrait) "I remember that Gigi Caccia Dominioni gave me, when I got married, a lamp that he had made with Livio Castiglioni: a transformer with a photo stand and a sewing machine bulb on top. This was also a way of filming anonymous objects which, by applying a new way of looking at the world, can become something else". (1) In that historical period, in the immediate post-war period, designers used to meet every week to chat with other professionals: artists, men of letters, philosophers, ... Vico Magistretti remembers "We kids were talking…
September 29, 2020
Great Masters | Renzo Piano Renzo Piano (portrait) The partnership between Renzo Piano and Piero Castiglioni arose in 1983 with the “Alexander Calder” retrospective exhibition, held at the Palavela, Turin. This project marked the beginning of their business relationship. “Ideally, I’d like a space with fixed 150-200 lux and the possibility of freely increasing it where and when needed. Light should also be used to give the space rhythm, alternating between a lot or a little. The standard should be qualitative.” (1) Dialogue between Renzo Piano and Franco Raggi. 1983 – Italy – Turin - Alexander Calder “Anthological exhibition” (1983…
May 26, 2020
Great Masters | Vittorio Gregotti Vittorio Gregotti (portrait) Born in Novara in 1927 to a family with a history as textile industrialists dating back to 1870, like all good middle-class children, he obtained a classical high school diploma. He then pursued his passion for music by attending the conservatory. Music led him to reflect on architecture “as music and architecture are two very similar things; they are both very communicative but not very informative or descriptive”. (1) He was fortunate to have parents who allowed him to travel, as this enabled him to gain a variety of experiences. He told…
July 12, 2019
Great Masters | Pierluigi Ghianda Pierluigi Ghianda (Bovisio Masciago, 29th December 1926 – 9th June 2015) Pierluigi Ghianda was born into the carpentry profession, as his father Iginio e his grandfather both crafted wood. He lived and breathed the workshop in Bovisio Masciago, in a house with adjoining workshop and timber warehouse designed by the architect Gianfranco Frattini. He loved the company of friends, good food, his wife and colleague Francesca, and their three daughters. Open and friendly, he travelled the world, exploring rainforests, in search of rare and precious timbers. He had an innate ability to understand wood, a…
May 17, 2021
Great Masters | Gianni Versace Gianni Versace (portrait) "I am not interested in the past, except that it is the way to the future." Gianni Versace The protagonist of this article is an icon of Italian fashion. "The birth of prêt-à-porter: as a need to express new needs and shape new and different social realities. I founded my company in 1975, Gianni Versace in 1978, as did Gianfranco Ferré. Krizia and the Missonis had already been working for years. (...) Fifteen years after his death, what memories do I have of Gianni Versace? That of a fantastic exuberance, of a…
May 3, 2021
Great Masters | Marco Zanuso Marco Zanuso (portrait) "Design is the most sophisticated form of applied art that man can boast. If there is no quality, there is no design. Formal quality communicates beauty and love. Physical quality, on the other hand, depends on how an object is constructed. Once upon a time it was said to be made in a workmanlike manner". Marco Zanuso Marco Zanuso 'Master of product design', as defined by Francois Burkhardt, (1) was born in Milan in 1916. After graduating from the Milan Polytechnic in 1939, he wore the uniform of a staff officer in…
April 19, 2021
Great Masters | Nanda Vigo Nanda Vigo (portrait) "Freedom has always been the basic point from the beginning. I have taken a few risks in life, but without freedom nothing can come out." Nanda Vigo Nanda Vigo was born in Milan on 14 November 1936. She grew up in an environment frequented by artists. After graduating from high school, she enrolled at the Lausanne Polytechnic. After graduating... Dialogue between Nanda Vigo and Franco Raggi - December 2003 What happened to you in the 1960s? I don't know about the 1960s, I can tell you about the 1940s. My enlightenment was…
April 5, 2021
Great Masters | Nikola Tesla Nicola Tesla (portrait) "The best way to fight ignorance is to spread knowledge in a systematic way. With this goal in mind, it is essential to foster the exchange of ideas and human relations." Nikola Tesla Tesla Exhibition Nikola Tesla: a scientist who was historically instrumental in the evolution of electricity and technology is back in the news. (2020 - Milan - Spazio Ventura "Tesla Exhibition" - Photo courtesy: Chiara Menescardi) Spazio Ventura XV presents the "Tesla Exhibition". Milan first and only stop in Italy of Tesla's World Tour. Due to COVID-19 it is suspended.…
March 22, 2021
Great Masters | Gae Aulenti Gae Aulenti (portrait) "I believe that the place is first of all a conceptual fact, that is, a fact of culture; in fact if you work in Paris, in Barcelona, in Milan or in Rome, the cultural conditions are different. Understanding these differences, and getting to know them, becomes a necessity for those who are going to design, because they have to operate in continuity with the tradition of the place." Gae Aulenti (1) Gae Aulenti and the Via Presolana 5 Studio (Livio Castiglioni with Gea Aulenti and Rina Brion - Photo courtesy: Piero Castiglioni)…
March 8, 2021
Great Masters | Gino Sarfatti Gino Sarfatti (portrait) Gino Sarfatti is described as “the genius of the lamp”, “an artist of lighting”, in a Casamica article. He played a pioneering role in the 1950s, also linked to the name of his company, Arteluce, the first Italian company committed to creating modern forms for lighting. When asked "What do you think you are? An artisan?" he replied "Yes, I am an artisan exactly". (1) Born in Venice in 1912, an aeronautical engineer by training, he became a manufacturer and even a salesman, founding a company, Arteluce, in 1936. A multifaceted personality,…
February 22, 2021
Great Masters | Gio Ponti Gio Ponti (portrait) "For life to be great and full it is necessary to put the past and the future into it” Gio Ponti Giovanni Ponti, known as Gio Ponti, was born in Milan on 18 November 1891. During the First World War, he served in the Pontieri Corps of Engineers with the rank of Captain. In 1921 he graduated from the Milan Polytechnic. In 1928, he founded Domus magazine with editor Gianni Mazzocchi. It soon became one of the most important publications dedicated to the theme of contemporary living. He was the first artistic…
February 8, 2021
Great Masters | Bruno Munari Bruno Munari (portrait) Talking to Bruno Munari, an ironic, smiling eighty-year “boy” who plays with light The search for the essential ("less is more"), an almost tormenting research of the entropy in reverse, that means, in conclusion, to regain an order. But as the kite that makes the wind "visible", all of us have learnt from him to see more. And we have also learnt that it is possible to play and make – what a beautiful reference point, this “ludens and faber” together. "One day I went to a stocking factory to see if…
January 27, 2021
Great Masters | Ernesto Gismondi Ernesto Gismondi (portrait) On 31 December 2020, Ernesto Gismondi passed away at the age of 89. "Ernesto Gismondi, a great innovator and friend, has left us. With Artemide he illuminated the world, he was the first to use plastic to make furniture, he sailed with his head held high in the seas of politics and business, and opened up new horizons in design. I will miss his anti-rhetorical genius". Stefano Boeri After graduating from high school, he obtained a degree in aeronautical engineering from the Politecnico di Milano in 1957 and a degree in missile…
December 14, 2020
Great Masters | Vico Magistretti Vico Magistretti (portrait) "I remember that Gigi Caccia Dominioni gave me, when I got married, a lamp that he had made with Livio Castiglioni: a transformer with a photo stand and a sewing machine bulb on top. This was also a way of filming anonymous objects which, by applying a new way of looking at the world, can become something else". (1) In that historical period, in the immediate post-war period, designers used to meet every week to chat with other professionals: artists, men of letters, philosophers, ... Vico Magistretti remembers "We kids were talking…
September 29, 2020
Great Masters | Renzo Piano Renzo Piano (portrait) The partnership between Renzo Piano and Piero Castiglioni arose in 1983 with the “Alexander Calder” retrospective exhibition, held at the Palavela, Turin. This project marked the beginning of their business relationship. “Ideally, I’d like a space with fixed 150-200 lux and the possibility of freely increasing it where and when needed. Light should also be used to give the space rhythm, alternating between a lot or a little. The standard should be qualitative.” (1) Dialogue between Renzo Piano and Franco Raggi. 1983 – Italy – Turin - Alexander Calder “Anthological exhibition” (1983…
May 26, 2020
Great Masters | Vittorio Gregotti Vittorio Gregotti (portrait) Born in Novara in 1927 to a family with a history as textile industrialists dating back to 1870, like all good middle-class children, he obtained a classical high school diploma. He then pursued his passion for music by attending the conservatory. Music led him to reflect on architecture “as music and architecture are two very similar things; they are both very communicative but not very informative or descriptive”. (1) He was fortunate to have parents who allowed him to travel, as this enabled him to gain a variety of experiences. He told…
July 12, 2019
Great Masters | Pierluigi Ghianda Pierluigi Ghianda (Bovisio Masciago, 29th December 1926 – 9th June 2015) Pierluigi Ghianda was born into the carpentry profession, as his father Iginio e his grandfather both crafted wood. He lived and breathed the workshop in Bovisio Masciago, in a house with adjoining workshop and timber warehouse designed by the architect Gianfranco Frattini. He loved the company of friends, good food, his wife and colleague Francesca, and their three daughters. Open and friendly, he travelled the world, exploring rainforests, in search of rare and precious timbers. He had an innate ability to understand wood, a…
December 12, 2022
Great Masters | Angelo Mangiarotti Angelo Mangiarotti (portrait) "I would say that the fundamental starting point for designing an object of design lies in its usefulness to people. An object that is not born of a need cannot even be considered as belonging to this category, design." Angelo Mangiarotti 26 February 2021 is a significant date because one hundred years ago Angelo Mangiarotti was born in Milan. The Vico Magistretti Foundation celebrated Vico's Hundred Years in 2020. He graduated in Architecture from Milan Polytechnic in 1948. From 1953-1954 he was a visiting professor at the Institute of Design of the…
December 5, 2022
Great Masters | Alessandro Mendini Alessandro Mendini (portrait) "I could avoid designing in order to realise but not to think, write or draw... An interview, a drawing, a small exhibition can tell more about me than a great project" Alessandro Mendini Unlike other architects and designers, he was first a theorist and then a designer. From 1970 to 1976 he directed "Casabella". He relaunched the magazine in an innovative way, approaching the demands of students and the new directions of the radical project (a movement which in Italy was characterised by the deliberate overriding of content over form, of ideology…
November 28, 2022
Great Masters | Enzo Mari Enzo Mari (portrait) "I am an artist and I work like an artist, precisely because of this, because I know what art is, I cannot stand sculpture objects because they are only the fruit of applied arts... The artist is the one who gives form to a collective value, in which everyone recognises themselves." Enzo Mari From October 17, 2020 to September 12, 2021 at the Milan Triennale there is an exhibition "Enzo Mari" curated by Hans Ulrich and Francesca Giacomelli. Stefano Boeri, President of the Triennale Milano, describes it as "a constellation", he says:…
November 23, 2022
Great Masters | Zaha Hadid Zaha Hadid (portrait) "I believe that the function of great architectural projects is precisely to create movement, ferment. The fluid lines (she herself once declared) are nothing more than the adaptation of form to a new concept of space that is more dynamic, flexible and alternative. A multiple and fragmented geometric perspective that reveals the questionability of numbers and formulas" Zaha Hadid Zaha Hadid is the first woman to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004. The first Pritzker Prize winner was Philip Johnson in 1979. Zaha Hadid "the Queen of Curves" was born in…
November 14, 2022
Great Masters | Pietro Chiesa Pietro Chiesa (portrait) Pietro Chiesa was born in Milan in 1892 into an illustrious Ticino family of artists. After an apprenticeship with the most renowned cabinet-makers and decorators in Milan, he opened a glass workshop in 1921, where he worked with artists, italian designer lighting and architects. ("Vetratine" - Pietro Chiesa - Photo courtesy: Archivio storico Chiara Baldacci) He also works on signs, particularly those in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. According to municipal regulations, dictated by Giuseppe Mengoni himself, they must all have a black glass background with gold lettering. He made a stained-glass window…
September 12, 2022
Great Masters | Livio Castiglioni Livio Castiglioni (portrait) In this section we have mentioned some of the great masters of design, lighting design and architecture. Livio Castiglioni has collaborated with most of these figures. The Studio in Via Presolana 5 came to life with him even though this "craft workshop" (where architectural lighting was born) can communicate through inventions, projects, lighting fixtures, lighting technology, the historical archive, ..., we tell about the Great Master through the words of Chiara Baldacci. In 1997, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of Livio Castiglioni's death, she wrote this article. "Researcher in light…
August 11, 2021
Great Masters | Joe Colombo Joe Colombo (portrait) "All objects that are needed in a house must be supplementary to the usable space; therefore they should no longer be called furniture, but rather "equipment". Joe Colombo 1970 Joe Colombo initially worked as a car salesman, just think of the convertible bed he designed in 1969, then he worked as a photographer, in the 1960s he turned to design and in about ten years he became part of the history of Italian design with his projects. Between the pages of the book Joe Colombo - L'invenzione del futuro published by Vitra…
July 28, 2021
Great Masters | Ettore Sottsass Ettore Sottsass (portrait) "The rite of architecture is performed to make real a space that was not real before the rite. Space is real when it is solid with attributes and heavy with meanings, when it is condensed - like a broth - of presences and suggestions, when it drips - like a dense colour - of surprises and transformations, when it pales with shadows and corrupts with light (1956)". (1) Ettore Sottsass After graduating from high school, he attended the Faculty of Architecture at Turin Polytechnic, where he graduated in 1939. In 1947 he…
July 14, 2021
Great Masters | Franco Albini Franco Albini (portrait) "Air and light are the building materials" Franco Albini The Franco Albi Foundation describes him as 'A silent, rigorous, ironic man, Albini worked tirelessly, supported by a moral code that accompanied him throughout his career. He firmly believes in the social role of the architect as a profession serving the people. He considers it the very reason for his existence'. (1) Born in 1905, he was one of a group of young architects who saw architecture as a mission to build the city of the future. As Vico Magistretti recalls, "We kids…
June 30, 2021
Great Masters | Luigi Caccia Dominioni Luigi Caccia Dominioni (portrait) "The role of an architect, I believe, is also to raise a succession of emotions. My entries, my stairs and even my furniture are urban solutions" Luigi Caccia Dominioni "(...) But what has this prestinee de rump ... Alter che prestinee, alter che rump, mumbles the policeman, it is the sculptor Castiglioni who is returning to his studio. So I look closer and see "el prestinee" in his face: imagine, it's him, Giannino, the sculptor I've known forever, for fifteen years I've been with him and his children day and…
June 14, 2021
Great Masters | Cini Boeri Cini Boeri (portrait) "I have always been interested in people and their behaviour. I am a great observer, when I design I like to get in tune with the clients and understand their needs and desires to try to provide them with the best possible solution. " (1) Cini Boeri Cini Boeri and the Via Presolana 5 Studio "Livio, brilliant, unpredictable, very funny friend. A polyglot, in Bilbao when he worked for me on a large showroom, he spoke his Spanish, which was a mixture of Genoese and Venetian, his French was Milanese enriched with…
May 31, 2021
Great Masters | Ingo Maurer Ingo Maurer (portrait) "Without taking risks, without engaging with objects that do not exactly correspond to the established idea of beauty, our ideas will not grow and the aesthetic quality of our work will gradually deteriorate ... Sometimes less taste is more taste." Ingo Maurer Dialogue between Ingo Maurer and Franco Raggi - 20 September 1989 How did you start working with light? Shall we start at the very beginning? If it is important... So I grew up on an island in Lake Constance. My father died when I was fifteen, we were five children,…
May 17, 2021
Great Masters | Gianni Versace Gianni Versace (portrait) "I am not interested in the past, except that it is the way to the future." Gianni Versace The protagonist of this article is an icon of Italian fashion. "The birth of prêt-à-porter: as a need to express new needs and shape new and different social realities. I founded my company in 1975, Gianni Versace in 1978, as did Gianfranco Ferré. Krizia and the Missonis had already been working for years. (...) Fifteen years after his death, what memories do I have of Gianni Versace? That of a fantastic exuberance, of a…
May 3, 2021
Great Masters | Marco Zanuso Marco Zanuso (portrait) "Design is the most sophisticated form of applied art that man can boast. If there is no quality, there is no design. Formal quality communicates beauty and love. Physical quality, on the other hand, depends on how an object is constructed. Once upon a time it was said to be made in a workmanlike manner". Marco Zanuso Marco Zanuso 'Master of product design', as defined by Francois Burkhardt, (1) was born in Milan in 1916. After graduating from the Milan Polytechnic in 1939, he wore the uniform of a staff officer in…
April 19, 2021
Great Masters | Nanda Vigo Nanda Vigo (portrait) "Freedom has always been the basic point from the beginning. I have taken a few risks in life, but without freedom nothing can come out." Nanda Vigo Nanda Vigo was born in Milan on 14 November 1936. She grew up in an environment frequented by artists. After graduating from high school, she enrolled at the Lausanne Polytechnic. After graduating... Dialogue between Nanda Vigo and Franco Raggi - December 2003 What happened to you in the 1960s? I don't know about the 1960s, I can tell you about the 1940s. My enlightenment was…
April 5, 2021
Great Masters | Nikola Tesla Nicola Tesla (portrait) "The best way to fight ignorance is to spread knowledge in a systematic way. With this goal in mind, it is essential to foster the exchange of ideas and human relations." Nikola Tesla Tesla Exhibition Nikola Tesla: a scientist who was historically instrumental in the evolution of electricity and technology is back in the news. (2020 - Milan - Spazio Ventura "Tesla Exhibition" - Photo courtesy: Chiara Menescardi) Spazio Ventura XV presents the "Tesla Exhibition". Milan first and only stop in Italy of Tesla's World Tour. Due to COVID-19 it is suspended.…
March 22, 2021
Great Masters | Gae Aulenti Gae Aulenti (portrait) "I believe that the place is first of all a conceptual fact, that is, a fact of culture; in fact if you work in Paris, in Barcelona, in Milan or in Rome, the cultural conditions are different. Understanding these differences, and getting to know them, becomes a necessity for those who are going to design, because they have to operate in continuity with the tradition of the place." Gae Aulenti (1) Gae Aulenti and the Via Presolana 5 Studio (Livio Castiglioni with Gea Aulenti and Rina Brion - Photo courtesy: Piero Castiglioni)…
March 8, 2021
Great Masters | Gino Sarfatti Gino Sarfatti (portrait) Gino Sarfatti is described as “the genius of the lamp”, “an artist of lighting”, in a Casamica article. He played a pioneering role in the 1950s, also linked to the name of his company, Arteluce, the first Italian company committed to creating modern forms for lighting. When asked "What do you think you are? An artisan?" he replied "Yes, I am an artisan exactly". (1) Born in Venice in 1912, an aeronautical engineer by training, he became a manufacturer and even a salesman, founding a company, Arteluce, in 1936. A multifaceted personality,…
February 22, 2021
Great Masters | Gio Ponti Gio Ponti (portrait) "For life to be great and full it is necessary to put the past and the future into it” Gio Ponti Giovanni Ponti, known as Gio Ponti, was born in Milan on 18 November 1891. During the First World War, he served in the Pontieri Corps of Engineers with the rank of Captain. In 1921 he graduated from the Milan Polytechnic. In 1928, he founded Domus magazine with editor Gianni Mazzocchi. It soon became one of the most important publications dedicated to the theme of contemporary living. He was the first artistic…
February 8, 2021
Great Masters | Bruno Munari Bruno Munari (portrait) Talking to Bruno Munari, an ironic, smiling eighty-year “boy” who plays with light The search for the essential ("less is more"), an almost tormenting research of the entropy in reverse, that means, in conclusion, to regain an order. But as the kite that makes the wind "visible", all of us have learnt from him to see more. And we have also learnt that it is possible to play and make – what a beautiful reference point, this “ludens and faber” together. "One day I went to a stocking factory to see if…
January 27, 2021
Great Masters | Ernesto Gismondi Ernesto Gismondi (portrait) On 31 December 2020, Ernesto Gismondi passed away at the age of 89. "Ernesto Gismondi, a great innovator and friend, has left us. With Artemide he illuminated the world, he was the first to use plastic to make furniture, he sailed with his head held high in the seas of politics and business, and opened up new horizons in design. I will miss his anti-rhetorical genius". Stefano Boeri After graduating from high school, he obtained a degree in aeronautical engineering from the Politecnico di Milano in 1957 and a degree in missile…
December 14, 2020
Great Masters | Vico Magistretti Vico Magistretti (portrait) "I remember that Gigi Caccia Dominioni gave me, when I got married, a lamp that he had made with Livio Castiglioni: a transformer with a photo stand and a sewing machine bulb on top. This was also a way of filming anonymous objects which, by applying a new way of looking at the world, can become something else". (1) In that historical period, in the immediate post-war period, designers used to meet every week to chat with other professionals: artists, men of letters, philosophers, ... Vico Magistretti remembers "We kids were talking…
September 29, 2020
Great Masters | Renzo Piano Renzo Piano (portrait) The partnership between Renzo Piano and Piero Castiglioni arose in 1983 with the “Alexander Calder” retrospective exhibition, held at the Palavela, Turin. This project marked the beginning of their business relationship. “Ideally, I’d like a space with fixed 150-200 lux and the possibility of freely increasing it where and when needed. Light should also be used to give the space rhythm, alternating between a lot or a little. The standard should be qualitative.” (1) Dialogue between Renzo Piano and Franco Raggi. 1983 – Italy – Turin - Alexander Calder “Anthological exhibition” (1983…
May 26, 2020
Great Masters | Vittorio Gregotti Vittorio Gregotti (portrait) Born in Novara in 1927 to a family with a history as textile industrialists dating back to 1870, like all good middle-class children, he obtained a classical high school diploma. He then pursued his passion for music by attending the conservatory. Music led him to reflect on architecture “as music and architecture are two very similar things; they are both very communicative but not very informative or descriptive”. (1) He was fortunate to have parents who allowed him to travel, as this enabled him to gain a variety of experiences. He told…
July 12, 2019
Great Masters | Pierluigi Ghianda Pierluigi Ghianda (Bovisio Masciago, 29th December 1926 – 9th June 2015) Pierluigi Ghianda was born into the carpentry profession, as his father Iginio e his grandfather both crafted wood. He lived and breathed the workshop in Bovisio Masciago, in a house with adjoining workshop and timber warehouse designed by the architect Gianfranco Frattini. He loved the company of friends, good food, his wife and colleague Francesca, and their three daughters. Open and friendly, he travelled the world, exploring rainforests, in search of rare and precious timbers. He had an innate ability to understand wood, a…
As Bruno Munari teaches us, it’s important to always maintain our curiosity. A good designer must not only be prepared on his own subject but, as Vico Magistretti said, he must have a rich cultural background (art, music, literature, philosophy, history, etc.) because light and architecture are not a world in themselves, but interact with everything that gravitates around them. The discovery of reality, for children, happens through play, exploration and experimentation, they learn and memorize. We should find the ability to be amazed and enter into the view that there is nothing absolute and definitive. In this way we would rediscover the lost amazement: a sense of wonder, disbelief, caused by something unexpected. Enjoy reading and feel free to leave comments.