059
058
Quadro, Giovanni Levanti, 1993;
Paris, Venice Collection, Patrice Butler, 1992;
Lucindo, Marco Mencacci, 1992
Table Light/Wall Light, James Wines-Site,
Abitare il tempo, Verona, 1991
explored in other styles such as Bijou, Blossoms and Buds, designed by
the same architect through 1993, the year in which Dordoni ended his
collaboration with Foscarini.
In the definition of products, from that moment entrusted to a number of
designers who had previously been introduced with Dordoni, the choice of
construction and materials became closely linked to the project options.
This led the company, in 1992, to use non-Murano plate glass for Orbital
by Ferruccio Laviani, to produce Nostromo by Patrice Butler, a ceiling track
system which could be composed into different configurations, and the
following year to use polypropylene and polyethylene for Havana by Jozeph
Forakis.
Foscarini did not abandon blown glass but became oriented,
independently of the materials, towards an industrial design product
where design experimentation was the focus of attention. Thus Orbital
was an illuminated object rather than a fixture for lighting, with a strong
graphic impact and bright colors, and a careful study of the metal details
which were all “visible”; Havana was also an exercise in economy, as far
as elements and construction materials were concerned, but not in terms
of lighting performance. Foscarini attempted simultaneously to renovate
the traditional typology of chandeliers with the Venice Collection by Butler,
a contemporary interpretation of the Venetian model with shaped arms,
and with Lucindo and Ramon by Marco Mencacci. A similar operation was
attempted by Giovanni Levanti with Quadro, an essential wall lamp which
created a dialogue between the two different glass types in the shade and
the support.
This moving along different paths, allowing different design directions to
coexist, was a positive characterization of this phase of Foscarini’s growth
into a design driven company. Aware of the role of design, but explicitly
interested in the implications of developing ideas, where strictly
commercial and marketing considerations do not appear as priorities or
restrictions. The rationality of the company’s global configuration coexisted
with the respect for intuition and passion in the selection of designs worthy
of development.
Thus Foscarini consolidated an open mentality towards research and
verification, directed at introducing new directions in production, and
experimenting with technology and materials.
The concurrent participation in cultural events was considered a stimulus
to design and a vehicle for public relations; this was the motivation behind
the Table Light/Wall Light project by the US team James Wines-Site,
exhibited in the cultural section of the 1991 trade fair Abitare il Tempo in
Verona: a room with an installation of 28 light sources, interpreted
conceptually in the post-modern language of the American architects.
