Luceplan was founded in 1978 by Paolo Rizzatto, Sandra Serveri and her husband, Riccardo Sarfatti, son of the great engineer and designer Gino Sarfatti, who had founded Arteluce.
In 1981, their D7 light was awarded the Compasso d’Oro ADI:
and, in 1984, they were joined by Alberto Meda, a specialist plastics engineer.
These two events laid the foundations for the particular strengths that make Luceplan such an important name in fine lighting: technical innovation and prize-winning designs.
Nor have they been afraid to take risks!
Costanza (top) is probably the lightest base’n'shade design ever devised. The stem will bend in the wind. The polycarbonate silkscreened shades are packed flat:
and, when assembled:
hangs from two little grooved bars. The switch/dimmer is that little rod.
It took the world years to appreciate what is now one of the most ubiquitous and important lights of the 20th century. It comes in every possible typology (wall, floor…), there are small Costanzinas, giant pendant versions, and even an arco-type floor-standing pendant light:
Berenice is not particularly innnovative:
but, in the crowded field of desk lights, it is a leader, being minimal, efficient — and, look…
enlived by the coloured panel above the lamp!
A connoisseur’s choice (it is a Berenice that Clive has on his desk).
In 2010, Philips bought Luceplan, then Riccardo Sarfatti was killed in a car crash. There was concern about the Company’s future. Everybody is therefore delighted that the traditions continue.
Hope, with its polycarbonate prismatic lenses, is both technically innovative and a multiple prize winner, having so far won the 2010 Red Dot Award, the 2010 Good Design Award from the Chicago Athenæum, the 2011 Premio die Premi (awarded by the Ministero per la Pubblica Amn. e per l’Innovazione) and (liker the D7), in 2011, the Compasso d’Oro ADI!
See also other posts to Fine Lighting News about other exciting recent designs from Luceplan.
