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It’s through light that we learn about our world. It’s light that, in the way it interacts with the dark, creates our perception of space. Design, innovation, and instinct transformed into reality, the new lighting products displayed at Milano Design Week 2022 by Artemide, Flos, Occhio, Axolight, Jung, and Erco include spotlights, lights that hide away in structural elements, outdoor lighting, and luminaires inspired by natural timbers.
Both designed by Mario Cucinella, Flexia and Katra Metron are two new products from Artemide. The first, inspired by the Japanese art of origami, has an acoustic panel that reduces reverberation in a room by absorbing sound waves. Discovery’s patented technology, the result of research conducted by company founder Ernesto Gismondi into the quality of light, projects a diffused, uniform, and comfortable light. Flexia’s flexible wings can be adjusted from 0° to 15° to 30° to change the way it interacts with its environment. The shape and density of its materials were selected to work mainly with the frequencies of human speech. The result is a beautiful luminaire based on parametrics and functionality.
Takku, designed by Foster + Partners, is a portable lamp with adjustable diffused light. Osidio, by Michele De Lucchi, is a delicate, organic, and harmonious pendant in which everything is based on optics. Its three branched arms support six light sources, distributing light evenly over the surface to be illuminated. The light is designed so it can be viewed directly without glare, while its internal structure centers on efficiency.
Stellar Nebula is a family of pendant, table, and floor lamps in which designer BIG set out to combine traditional hand glassblowing with innovative finishes. In this project, BIG has designed the overall shape of the luminaires but let the beauty of the glassblower’s craft speak for itself, underscoring the value and uniqueness of ancient craft techniques that have been handed down for generations. Again the result of collaboration with BIG, Artemide’s La Linea is a flexible tube of light that twists and turns freely in space. Thanks to an unprecedented combination of light quality, IP protection, flexibility, and modularity, it can be used in all kinds of spaces, both indoor and out. It’s fixing elements disappear into its body.
>>> Discover the Artemide Funivia collection.
A multi-experiential hub, and an immersive physical and digital journey into the universe of design and the future vision of the brand – to celebrate its 60th birthday, Flos has transformed the former Orobia factory into an over 65,000 square-foot (6000 m2) stage for the See the Stars Again installation. The initiative was the brainchild of CEO Roberta Silva and global marketing director Barbara Corti, who worked with event curators and installation designers, Fabio Calvi and Paolo Brambilla. See the Stars Again is more than an art installation: it’s a cultural event, an artistic performance, and a meeting place for retailers. A mixture of ideas, inspirations, and activities. The title of the project is from the end of the first cantata of Dante’s Inferno. Conveying a message of restart and rebirth, the choice of such a large space reflects the company’s desire to seamlessly exhibit, in a single place that offers various perspectives for communication, its decorative, architectural, outdoor, and bespoke collections. In other words, the brand’s four product groups.
Flos nevertheless saw Milano Design Week as a chance to present a range of new products, including Almendra, a delicate lighting system designed by Patricia Urquiola, who drew her inspiration from an almond shell; the Nicta bollard system; Vincent Van Duysen’s Spine series of outdoor floodlights; the To-Tie table lamp collection; and, the delightful Skynest pendant lamp designed by Marcel Wanders Studio.
“By weaving strips of light together, this pendant is a perfect combination of elegance and innovation,” explains the studio. “Delicate fabric tubes integrated with LED lights are woven like threads along the structure of the lamp, creating a unique and surprising element that challenges the archetype of bulb lighting. Made to last, Skynest is a poetic blend of the tradition of handweaving and innovative lighting techniques to create a timeless piece of design.”
Conceived as a three-dimensional sculpture that can transform a beam of light into a sensory experience, Occhio’s Mito Gioia collection is a combination of design and innovation. The three versions – Mito Gioia Equilibrio, Mito Gioia Tavolo, and Mito Gioia Lettura – were designed by Axel Meise. Each one has a 360° rotatable, height-adjustable head, controlled by a simple movement of the hand. The color of the light is also easily adjusted, ranging from warm temperatures, similar to incandescent lamps, to a colder, more stimulating light intended for work. With the Focus Light function, the light of Mito Gioia can be directed towards a specific area.
The Mito Gioia Equilibrio model was designed for executive desktops and home office workstations. The head of the lamp, made with high-quality, customizable materials, and the characteristic design are the same as the rest of the iconic Mito series. The luminaire has an essential look, again with a 360° adjustable head. With two folding arms and an asymmetrical light with a radius of up to 70 inches (180 cm), the head and body of the Lettura version can easily be moved in any direction, bringing light to exactly where it’s needed.
A fully metal wall and ceiling luminaire with a diameter of about 24 inches (61 cm), Manifesto is the result of applying the abstract, essential, and geometric forms of neoplasticism to lighting design. It was created by Timo Ripatti, marking the third time he’s collaborated with Axolight since Cut in 2019 and U-Light in 2017. Like these earlier products, Manifesto is stylistically audacious but compositionally balanced. Manifesto projects around 2020 lumens of indirect light from dimmable LEDs with a total power of some 18.2 watts. It’s color rendering index (CRI) is greater than 90, while its LED driver and dimmer are incorporated into the body.
“All the elements that make up Manifesto are brought together according to the proportions of the golden section,” explains Timo Ripatti. When the light’s turned off, the luminaire appears as a bas-relief that emerges from the wall. When the light is switched on, its emotional impact increases. The light surrounds the body of the lamp, creating a background halo and highlighting the contrasts between the different shapes.”
Life, energy, freedom, joy, passion, magic, sensuality … almost every time we see colors, we experience different emotions. This is the perspective that Jung and Erco took with their FARBDURST installation, a word that translates as “thirst for color.” Participating in the Fuorisalone program in the Brera Design District, the two companies collaborated to create a temporary work intended to immerse viewers in the colors of the first and the lights of the second.
But the perception of color, its relationship with space and people, is also, and in particular, determined by the interaction between light and dark. For this reason, Erco’s LED spotlights play a key role in the installation. Its latest products include the new Parscan spotlights, which comprise three product families: Parscan 48V, Parscan InTrack, and Parscan OnTrack. The range features six sizes, twelve interchangeable light arrangements, filters, tunable whites, RGBW, and digital connectivity, bringing a host of efficient and varied lighting possibilities to museums or even boutique offices.
Please refer to the individual images in the gallery to look through the photo credits
