Foscarini floor reading lamps

The Italian brand Foscarini designs exclusive lamps and was established in Venice by Carlo Urbinati and Alessandro Vecchiato in 1981. The revolutionary halogen lamp had just been introduced to the market, and the company’s vision was to explore new lighting technologies while creating expressive designer lamps.

In 1985, the company began collaborating with two external designers, Adam Thiany and Joseph Mancini. Under the motto “pure emotions”, Foscarini continued to experiment with materials, function and contemporary technology, leading to a series of acclaimed collaborations and striking designer lamps.

Modern Italian lamps

The first major breakthrough came in 1990 with the Lumiere lamp, designed by Rodolfo Dordoni. Over the next few years, the company experimented with materials such as industrial glass and polyethylene to create cutting-edge Italian design. In 2000, it launched the Mite and Tite lamps in collaboration with designer Marc Sadler, a floor lamp and a ceiling lamp in fiberglass and steel that look more like a sculpture than a lamp. These lamps won the prestigious Compasso d’Oro award and are considered a true technological innovation. This was the first but by no means the last time that Foscarini’s designer lamps would be nominated for the award.

In 2005, the next big breakthrough came with the Caboche lamp, designed by Patricia Urquiola and Eliana Gerotto. Caboche, from the French for white cabbage, is designed to spread as much light as possible without glare. With an inner glass shade and distinctive plastic balls, it makes a strikingly beautiful lamp that is now being produced in a new LED version available in two colors. The success of Caboche is due to the success of Marc Sadler’s Twiggy and Gregg, designed by Ludovica and Roberto Palomba. This proved to be a prominent period in the history of the design firm, when several innovative design lamps spread their light.

In 2013, the company celebrated its 30th anniversary by opening showrooms in Milan and New York and launching new versions of the Twiggy lamp. Forscarini kept up with the technology of the modern age by launching an app, iFoscarini. In the app, design enthusiasts can place Foscarini lamps in rooms and settings in their own surroundings to see which lamp creates the right atmosphere. In 2014, the company again won the Compasso d’Oro and received honorable mention for four additional designer lamps.