“Design objects shouldn’t be in fashion. Fashion is made to go out of fashion.” These few words from Achille, one of the brothers within the namesake band of designers, alone sum up all the influence of the Castiglionis’ design. By starting with an observation of the objects that abound in everyday life, the brothers begin asking questions about the essential and ideal shape of a necessary good. For example, a light fixture. In 1962, Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni took a close interest in the question of how to light up each corner of a room starting with an overhead fixture but without actually putting lights on the ceiling. And thus the Arco floor lamp was born.
“What we had in mind was a lamp that would make the table light up.” Its biggest innovation of the day was indeed freeing up the living space from a fixed point of light on the ceiling. The Castiglionis brought a mobile solution to the problem as sublime as it is useful. Its look is purely artistic, purely modern for some. This approach, more sculptural than functional, inserts the object into a line of poetic utility.
This very ambiguity is what has brought it so much success. Equipped with a telescopic adjustable steel stem, a perforated metal globe, and a rectangular base made of white marble from Carrara, its oversized dimensions project a simple and distinguished elegance. The Arco floor lamp has sold over 100,000 copies, all while becoming an integral part of the MoMA’s permanent collection. Some see it as an inescapable part of the Milanese design landscape. And yet, in 1970 Achille Castiglioni himself pointed out: “This isn’t an Italian success, but rather the success of a high-value design method.”
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