INTRODUCING THE 3 ICONIC LAMPS FROM FLOS, AN ITALIAN LIGHTING BRAND FOUNDED IN 1960 BY DINO AND CESARE CASSINA. SURPASSING BASIC ILLUMINATION, FLOS EMBRACES TECHNOLOGY AND ARTISTIC DESIGN THROUGH COLLABORATIONS WITH WORLD-RENOWNED DESIGNERS
TEXT: KITA THAPANAPHANNITIKUL
PHOTO COURTESY OF LAMPTITUDE RESERVE
(For Thai, press here)
Among the top spots on the list of the most prominent lighting design innovators in the world sits Dino and Cesare Cassina’s Italian brand, FLOS. Through collaborations with world-renowned designers such as Achille Castiglioni, Philippe Starck, Gino Sarfatti, or research-based design studio Formafantasma, FLOS has always treated lighting design as far more than its role to provide standard illumination, encompassing other aspects of function, technology, and aesthetics. All of the aforementioned have established FLOS as a brand with multiple iconic creations in its history books, a brand that continues to seek and innovate new solutions and possibilities. We’re taking a trip down memory lane to revisit three legendary FLOS lamps that have had a lasting impact on the world of lighting design.
1. ARCO (1962)
Many people think of downlights or flush or semi-flush-mouth chandeliers when there’s a discussion about floor lamps that can produce the effect of direct uplight. The flush or semi-flush-mouth chandeliers have the same issue in that they must be mounted directly to the ceiling, rendering the lamp fixed in place and immovable. Now, let’s imagine a lamp that can generate light upward while also being movable to accommodate differing functional requirements in users’ daily lives, such as lighting a dining or reading area.
In the early 1960s, while traveling through Paris, France, the Castiglioni Brothers noticed the design of a mundane everyday object—a light pole—and thought that it might hold the answer to the challenge they were attempting to overcome, which was to create a lamp with the ability to permit light upward with a long and slender structure and an anchored foundation. The seemingly trivial idea eventually led to the design that would later become one of the world’s most iconic lighting creations.
With the design’s premise of creating a lamp with a solid foundation to anchor the structure, which includes a shade that would generate direct light upward, Arco Lamp was developed using a 132 pound Carrera stone as its base. With this, the structure would be stable enough to anchor the perfect arch stem that beautifully rises and bows from the top, reaching out two meters from the base. The lamp’s two-meter height allows users to comfortably sit or walk beneath it. The three-piece stainless steel stem is lighter in weight and has adjustment ranges. The birth of ARCO resulted in a shift in perception of lamps as works of design, from fixed and inflexible to movable objects. It is a small but significant step forward in the realm of lamp design, cementing ARCO’s status as one of the most timeless and iconic lighting creations.
2. GUN (2005)
Is it possible for a lamp, as a source of light, to represent something much larger, such as social issues? This was the key question raised by famous French designer and architect Philippe Starck, which led to the creation of the acclaimed Gun Collection in 2005 and the message it conveyed about money, war, and death.
Through the designs of the aluminum lamp bases that mimic the shapes of different types of pistols coated with 18K gold for a heightened sense of luxury, the lamps in the collection expressed the symbolic meanings of wars in various parts of the world. The images represented greed and profiteering from wartime conflicts. The various kinds of pistols represent the areas to which the owners of the weapons belong, such as the portrayal of the Western world with the M16-shaped base, while Europe is represented in the bedside model, whose design is based on a Beretta pistol handgun. Despite their distinct designs, each lamp in this series has one thing in common: the pitch-black shade, which symbolizes the death and devastating loss caused by wars.
The incorporation of death and war into an everyday object such as a lamp highlighted Philippe Starck’s ideation and work process, as well as how he focused on delivering the final results and messages rather than aesthetics. In this case, a provocative series of lamps inspired by one of the most heinous stories has sparked conversations between people, objects, and the space. FLOS donates 20% of the proceeds from the Gun Collection to ‘Frères des Hommes,’ a non-profit organization dedicated to the abolition of poverty worldwide.
3. Wireline (2019)
A lamp cord is typically carefully hidden for aesthetic reasons. Yet, the cord is treated as the protagonist in the design of Wireline by the Italian design studio Formafantasma, which designed a lamp with only two structural components: a cord and an LED bulb. The design gives birth to a lamp with simplified elements where the wire flows freely as the lamp exists almost as an art installation, displaying the beauty of line, technology, and functions as one entity.
Formafantasma began with the use of a rubber strip as the material of the cord’s exterior, creating a look that resembles a long, flat leather belt. The elasticity of the material makes the Wireline lamp appear like a parabola graph when installed on the ceiling. The LED bulb in the center emphasizes the contrasting elements of the rubber strip’s minimal structure and the complex details of the LED bulb, resulting in a final product that looks like a piece of installation art, beautifully making its statement in a space. The pendant lamp functions similarly to a loose sculpture and is best suited for high-ceilinged spaces such as hotel lobbies, offices, and living rooms.
For those who are interested in finding out more, contact Lamptitude Reserve, the official distributor of FLOS’ pieces and collections in Thailand. For the upcoming Architect Expo ’23, Lamptitude also put together a little exhibition to showcase authentic FLOS lamps, from the iconic pieces to the new arrival models such as WIRELINE, ARRANGEMENT, COORDINATES, TARAXACUM 88, and SHOGUN, for those who want to see what the real FLOS lamps actually look like for themselves.