The new Artemide Exhibition Centre designed by MCA - Mario Cucinella Architects is a lively space that brings together the history and the future of the company Directly connected to the Innovation Centre inside the headquarters at Pregnana Milanese the new Artemide Exhibition Centre was opened during Milano Design Week A location that immediately states the importance of training and research in this context due to the relationship with the testing and certification labs and the department of research and development near the design offices and the production facilities The entire space is organized as a narrative architectural ribbon running smoothly and generating bends in which to display and demonstrate light The curved lines of the walls are broken up and overlapped to create passages and to divide the space without enclosures opened in a permeable way from inside to outside is inserted in the industrial building without concealing it instead offering glimpses from the openings in the suspended ceilings for a dialogue between existing and newly constructed parts The collections on view include Kata Metron by Mario Cucinella The largest diffusion magazine in the luxury & design world Privacy Policy(function (w,d) {var loader = function () {var s = d.createElement("script") tag = d.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; s.src="https://cdn.iubenda.com/iubenda.js"; tag.parentNode.insertBefore(s,tag);}; if(w.addEventListener){w.addEventListener("load" false);}else if(w.attachEvent){w.attachEvent("onload" loader);}else{w.onload = loader;}})(window This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page A new monograph offers a look at lesser-known aspects of the Italian designer’s work I knew of only one object in the canon that had an Indian name Part of the designer’s groundbreaking first collection for the Memphis Group in 1981 the Ashoka lamp was named after a Buddhist emperor and seems Sottsass combined this backstory with the collaged aesthetic and exposed lightbulbs that would characterize 1980s interior design it remains a beautiful symbol—of both its complex time and the complicated man who created it written by Philippe Thomé and designed by Julia Hasting It’s no small feat of graphic design that allows a reader to easily pull out a single strand from a dense matrix of influences that include neoplasticism Within a bifold blue cover that I associate immediately with the eighties the book opens each section of Sottsass’s life with a narrative text and a slew of photographs before exploring his projects in different disciplines by turn color-coded sheets that act as section dividers so the fat book seems to naturally fall open to interesting moments—like the biographical text that begins his wife] traveled to India for the first time It was three years after the Eameses had visited and five years before the Beatles were to land in New Delhi Sottsass was there to work: The chemical giant Montedison paid for the trip and sought industrial collaborations from the developed world The 44-year-old Sottsass brought back typical first impressions—poverty a form of nephritis considered terminal in Italy Sottsass made a recovery from this serious ailment at the Stanford Medical Center in Palo Alto This is one of those points in the narrative where the book design serves Thomé so well became the title of a publication he began putting together from the room So the account of the India trip is immediately followed by the section on graphic design—how Sottsass combined collages of American advertisements with editorials on Pop Art for the first few issues of East 128 he traveled to San Francisco and spent time with important beat poets like Allen Ginsberg (a known Indophile who embraced the Hare Krishna movement) Sottsass and Pivano turned East 128 into an imprint had short essays interspersed with translations of ancient Indian texts the effect of that first Indian sojourn upon Sottsass was more Beatles than Eames He was to return to different parts of India again and again (Thomé quotes Radice: “Ettore found India because he needed India He looked for it and found it instinctively as animals sniff the air and go to water.”) The early works that overtly reference those trips as well as the drawings and photographs of the time A series of ceramic plates from 1964 is called Offerta a Shiva (Offering to Shiva) Shiva was the Hindu god of destruction and thanks to a mythological association with ganja He became keenly interested in curved concrete walls— previously reserved for bridges or warehouses—as a way of freeing his work from the heritage of rationalism Courtesy Erik and Petra Hesmerg/CSCAC Parma and Studio Ettore Sottsass it seems as though two parallel trajectories of work opened up for Sottsass the man who was famous as the designer of Italy’s first supercomputer went on to design the Valentine typewriter in 1969 and win his second Compasso d’Oro in 1970 for a mechanical calculator called Summa 19 the same years saw two collections of ceramics named after Tantra—an esoteric form of Hinduism that is perceived as being erotic—and Yantra the diagrams more commonly known as mandalas It would be a mistake to think of the former strain as externally focused and the latter as an expression of internal mysticism and office furniture were becoming increasingly humanized and concerned with social issues His evocation of traditional symbols rings more and more hollow The Yantra di Terracotta range appropriated geometric diagrams believed by devout Hindus to hold spiritual energy and extruded them in ceramics to form vases for distribution in interior design shops Ancient civilizations and Pop Art were huge influences on Sottsass’s work Courtesy Ettore Sottsaas and Barbara Radice/Studio Ettore Sottsass The two strains of work don’t really seem to coalesce until the Ashoka lamp which is conspicuous by its absence in Thomé’s book to explore a world of ideas “with a light tread to represent or not represent things or persons traditions [sic] or boorish.” So it may or may not be a contradiction that the lamp is named for India’s foremost champion of an antimaterialist religion and is inspired by that religion’s holiest sites while simultaneously designed to be an object for consumption by modern Europeans and Americans Sottsass designed these pepper mills for Alessi in 1989 a year after he presented an exhibition of products crafted in India that also used turned wood and colored lacquers Even as he gradually stepped away from Memphis and turned to architecture in the following years Sottsass kept his relationship to India alive he participated in an exhibition that brought Indian craft traditions and international designers together to create a collection of one-off products This encounter led him to initiate his own collaboration with Indian craftspeople resulting in a 1988 exhibition of furniture called Bharata (which translates and inspiring a series of turned-wood objects for Twergi these later decades are sprinkled with many charming photographs from India—of Sottsass and Radice with a python around her neck Sottsass seated on a string cot among a bevy of children Subscribe to our mailing list to receive the latest updates, exclusive content, subscription deals delivered straight to your inbox! Calipso is a wall and ceiling lamp - high tech lighting generated from a forgotten, vintage algorithm. The result is a highly emotional lighting object that joins together optical and aesthetic intelligence.  A product positioned perfectly half-way between home and professional use, Calipso is suited to a variety of applications - expressing Artemide's traditional approach to deliver high performance lighting with a unique and emotional expressiveness. Available September/October 2017. Approx €800 Neil Poulton is a Scottish designer who lives & works in Paris France. Poulton has won numerous international design awards - including this year's Silver ePDA prize for the Artemide "Scopas" suspension lamp - his work is included in the Beaubourg museum's permanent collection in Paris - his "Rugged" hard drive, designed for LaCie, has sold over 4.7 million units. For over 25 years, Neil Poulton has been designing simple, mass-produced objects, some of which are probably already in your own home. Artemide, one of the global leaders of the residential illumination sector, is synonymous with design, innovation and Made in Italy. Founded in 1960 and situated at Pregnana Milanese, the Artemide Group is renowned for its lighting products which marry cutting-edge research with high-quality manufacturing. Artemide lamps are considered internationally to be icons of contemporary design; they are exhibited in most major museums of modern art and in countless design collections across the globe.  In 1994 Artemide received The "Compaso D'oro" career Award, the European Design Prize in 1997 and the “Leonardo italian Quality Prize” in 2012.  Iconic lighting is a real Italian job, reports Kya deLongchamps as she charts the popularity of Artemide reports Kya deLongchamps as she charts the popularity of Artemide exploratory nature of the 1960s and early 1970s resulted in a wild departure from expected forms Lighting is one area of mid-century madness that has survived and thrived in our current collections almost uninterrupted Designers hit so many high lights - appreciated by architects and decorators keeping particular lighting ranges in production for over half a century Inspiration was taken from the best of art deco and early modernism of the 30s and developed through the lens of post-war shifts and the democratisation of design by visionary manufacturers with their own design studios changed the market where architects took charge of every element of a commercial building or one-off super-houses The public bought into this bright future as lights trickled down to the high street through the growth of interiors publications and trade shows this new wave would have stiffened the hairspray of even adventurous middle-aged homeowners This was the time in which we pierced the Earth’s outer atmosphere — anything seemed possible The Italians have a long history of glass and fine metalwork making Artemide is still very much in business since 1957 in Pregnana Milanese and was most recently awarded the prestigious Archiproducts Design Award for their flexible tube light — La Linea futuristic lighting fixtures include perennial award-winning collaborations over six decades with feted architects including Naoto Fukasawa Nessino in glossy thermoplastic as seen on Roger’s desk in HBO’s ‘Mad Men’.Starting small the Eclisse by Vico Magistretti c 1966 is a table steel lamp with a familiar form of a bubble set on a half shelf Its space-age appearance is enhanced by an inner metal shade that can be turned over the bulb to direct the light It recalls the sets of 2001 Space Odyssey and in a choice of colours Eclisse was an instant hit the Eclisse offers a nice low point of balance and excellent engineering for a side table or bedside It can also be wall mounted from €154 from a range of suppliers The Dalu from Artemide is a similar aesthetic in sharp half ball on supporting cusp this one in a single piece of thermoplastic If you want metal belting to that rounded form — something slighting more urbane classic and sophisticated look up the vintage Saffo lamps of Angelo Mangiarotti in mouth blown The other popular Artemide lamp on more daring desks including Roger’s in Mad Men is the Nessino an organic eruption of lava in injection moulded polycarbonate by Giancarlo Mattioli & Gruppo Architetti Urbanisti Città Nuova throwing direct light down to your paperwork and diffusing light around its position Nessino is part of the Century Design wing of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and would sit beautifully in a searing contemporary room looking for some style credentials beyond IKEA Saarinen tulip based tables and quality glass surfacing; €144 for a full-size 32cm diameter lamp but unlikely in a fake to be hand-built with the same quality specifications the Tolomeo Tavolo c 1986 is the perfect desk lamp The last time I saw one was hovering on the studio space of Dr Marc Ó Riain in The Architecture Factory in CIT and it was a reminder what understated superb design can do Created by Michele de Lucchi and finessed by Giancarlo Fassina its action was inspired by a fishing device used by Apulian fishermen The desk version has a heavy base and tensioned action to hold it in the perfect What makes it immediately identifiable is the small head rather bird-like and industrial with a spike on the shade to adjust its illuminating pool the Tolomeo’s 360 swivel head was scattered over desks on Wall Street in the 1980s and the lamp retains a firm following in a rainbow of colours in aluminium It won the prestigious the Compasso d’Oro design prize in 1989 and has been continuously redeveloped into a series of ball-jointed floor lamps and wall lamps My choice would be a 45cm original width in a clamp Prices range from €214 for a Tolomeo Micro A design winner in Milan and Frankfurt in 2004 I have to slither forward to offer up the Pipe ceiling fitting by Herzog & de Meuron for Artemide who built the Tate Modern This is a curious Medusa style light fitting in tubular steel with a silicone cover that can snake its way in any direction and sits perfectly with the late mid-century trend for the wacky and wild line The pierced side of the cone-shaped lamp head delivers what is termed ‘babbled’ light and with its elegant articulation and functionality — it’s highly architectural and is a good alternative if you simply can’t stand a ceiling studded with direction spots It can (like Eclisse) also be wall-mounted to peer at you in corridors and from over bed heads; from €800 from multiple suppliers for Artemide Explore the graded glass Gople collection designed by BIG — Bjarke Ingels Group and developed for the new AREA 2071 in Dubai Quite Scandinavian with their graded glass pill-shaped pendant Available in a crystal glass with a white gradient or transparent glass with a silver or copper metallic finish they can be staggered over a table for exquisite suspension that lightly shields the bulb; from €552 From as little as €1 a week with our digital introductory offer Already a subscriber? 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