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In recent years, the vintage market has recorded a growing appreciation for the most iconic 20th century lamps. A vintage lamp dictates the character of a room as much as a work of art, being one of the most versatile and impactful vintage categories within contemporary living contexts. Among the must-haves of designer lighting, whose success is demonstrated by the fact that they continue to be bestsellers of the companies that launched them, we rediscover two great classics that combine elegance, originality and innovation: the Arco floor lamp (in the picture on the set of Iron Man), designed by Pier Giacomo and Achille Castiglioni for Flos, and the Atollo table lamp by Vico Magistretti for Oluce.
Although very different in style and size (Arco reaches 2.5 m in height), the two lamps share the fact that they are born from very simple ideas: Arco, as the word itself says, is an arched line that culminates in light; Atollo is the stylization of the classic lampshade translated into pure geometry. Both structures carefully hide the technical elements in their volumes, enhancing the distribution of a soft and diffused light. But even when switched off, the two lamps remain beautiful to look at, suspended between their value as functional design pieces and art objects that leave an elegant mark on the space; they entered to such an extent in the collective interior design imagination, that even those who do not know their authors will find them somehow familiar!
It should be remembered that the success of such pieces cannot be separated from the entrepreneurial context that generated them, a scenario animated by a group of enlightened Italian entrepreneurs/designers (Dino Gavina for Flos, Giuseppe Ostuni for Oluce), who came to terms with a growing Italy projected towards modernity: designing objects that reflected the Italian tradition and history and that were at the same time innovative, intelligent and responsive to the needs of modern life, was the main concern in the attempt to create the Italian design system, which established itself from the 60s to the 70s, based on the values of memory and modernity.
Designed by Pier Gicomo and Achille Castiglioni in 1962, Arco is so iconic that it has defined the very concept of an "arch lamp", a much-imitated typology for its ability to create ever-new fulcrum of light. Its peculiarity lies in fact in being hybrid, versatile; it is not a fixed ceiling lamp or an applique on the wall, but it still projects light from above, with the possibility of being moved around the room — thanks to a hole in the base — to direct the light towards a specific point. Inspired by the figure of the street lamp, it is composed of a parallelepiped base made of Carrara marble weighing 65 kg, an arched stem in stainless steel and a bell-shaped diffuser in polished aluminum. With its simple and incisive style, Arco has represented a real revolution in the domestic landscape.
Atollo was born in 1977, originally made in opaline Murano glass, then also developed in the metal version. Designed for Oluce by Vico Magistretti, who was also the brand's artistic director, this lamp has rethought and revolutionized the concept of the classic lampshade. Cylinder, cone and hemisphere come together in an absolute balance, a perfect combination of geometric beauty and essentiality. Winner of the Compasso d'Oro award in 1979, Atollo is a constant presence in prestigious permanent collections, including that of the MoMA in New York.
Thanks to the formal neutrality that characterizes them, Arco and Atollo remain great timeless classics, the first ideal placed near an armchair for a perfect reading corner, or next to the dining table to create a point of light; the second positioned on a console or a sideboard in the living area, just as it is easy to imagine it on the chest of drawers or on the bedside table. Whatever their destination, we like to think of such objects as “animated presences” quoting an expression by Magistretti himself: «If someone enters a shop and buys one of my lamps, for example» – said the designer, «well that lamp will end up influencing his life in the house.
