23
Lumiere
Orbital
Havana
Mite
Foscarini
Lumiere is undoubtedly Foscarini’s most
representative lamp. Over the space of
thirty years, the design has been renovated
in the form of small but substantial changes
in colours, fi nishes, dimensions, giving rise
to an evolutionary line of the model itself:
from medium to small, with etched glass
fi rst, and polished glass later, in the
silhouette and proportions of the structure,
in the fl oor, reading, ceiling, suspension and
wall lamp versions.
Devised as the reinterpretation of the
classic table lamp with a lampshade, at the
time, although it was not deliberately
inspired by it, it represented one of the
trends in contemporary design aimed at
restyling the ‘forms of memory’ during the
90s. Dordoni embraces this theme, forcing
it from a technological perspective into the
solution with the metal tripod and in the
unprecedented association of materials.
The designer recalls when, at one of the
fi rst meetings, he drew a sketch of it on a
piece of paper, rather a small drawing, of a
glass hat with a tripod: “Just to get the idea
across of associating glass with cast
aluminium, as at the time cast aluminium
was a brand new, highly contemporary
material”.1 Lumiere is supported by a
slender tripod base, made from a single
piece of special die-cast aluminium alloy
hand fi nished and polished, which stabilises
a slightly tapered glass lampshade, by
means of a simple screw on top. The
harmonious combination of the two
different materials used is a winning choice.
The decision to give a streamlined shape to
the blown glass, etched on the external
surface, is combined with an intricate study
of the colouring to obtain diversifi ed lighting
results: the inner layer is always white for
refl ection, while the outer layer turns red to
accentuate the illumination of the table top,
white, green or peach yellow for a diffused
effect in space.
The transition to polished glass dates
back to 2005, which was also accompanied
by a change in colours: white, ivory, grey,
amber (or rather a shade of brown that
reproduces the shade of amber when the
Lumiere /1990 — design Rodolfo Dordoni
About shedding light
23
Rodolfo Dordoni pictured by
Gianluca Vassallo in his Milanese
studio with the Lumiere 25 and
Lumiere XXL models.
Chap. 1 — A new design for light
Preparatory drawings for the analysis of
proportions between the aluminium base
and the blown glass diffuser.
