35
Lumiere
Orbital
Havana
Mite
Foscarini
About shedding light
Havana was Foscarini’s fi rst time
producing a lightweight, mobile, plastic
lamp which casts diffused light, together
with a young designer. Havana delivers an
ironic juxtaposition of name and image,
is cost-effective and quickly became a
success owing to its fl exibility of use and
its ease of adaptation to various usage
conditions and installation contexts. As a
solution for ambient lighting, Havana
introduced a new type and function which
was soon used as a model and for reference
by internationally renowned companies in
the world of low-cost furniture.
As with other objects, the production
process has been gradual: initially
developed in glass, the lamp was expensive
and heavy, losing the light weight and irony
inherent in its concept, which was
subsequently recovered by changing
material. A model made of fi breglass
documents the initial design development
phase, but the drawback was that very little
light actually shone through it. Evaluations
of the technical and economic feasibility
of the device then led to the use of
self-extinguishing and recyclable
polyethylene and polypropylene to produce
the diffuser, initially with blow-moulding
technology, but that option was quickly
abandoned because it provided poor light
control, in favour of injection moulding.
Similar considerations led to the paring
back of lamp body components, from the
original fi ve to the current four, in order to
make it symmetrical and use only two
moulding dies. The metal supporting parts
were also kept to a minimum in terms of
quantity and sections. The four plastic
volumes are attached to one another and
kept at a constant distance by three metal
‘staples’. The slim support tube is welded to
a rod tapered at the top to form a ring which
keeps the four volumes of the cigar-shaped
diffuser suspended. The base consists of
four laser-cut metal crossing blades.
Havana /1993 — design Jozeph Forakis
35
Detail of the fi rst prototype in
fi breglass with metal hooks.
Study of the volume of the diffusers making
up the lamp body of Havana and photo of a fi rst
prototype in fi breglass.
Chap. 1 — A new design for light
