Red Slalom Desk Lamp attributed to Vico Magistretti for Oluce, 1980s

Innovative architect, industrial designer, and urban planner Vico Magistretti was a driving force in Italian design from the 1960s onwards. Born into a family of successful Milanese architects in 1920, he became one of Italy’s most respected designers, celebrated for an uncanny mastery of clarity of form.

During the Second World War, Magistretti fled to Lausanne, Switzerland to escape military deportation and began to attend classes at the Champ Universitaire Italien in Lausanne. There, he met and befriended legendary rationalist architect Ernesto Nathan Rogers (1909-69), co-founder of BBPR, who would become a lifelong mentor.

Upon returning to Italy, Magistretti pursued an architecture degree from the Politecnico di Milano, graduating in 1945, and began working at his father’s architectural firm with Paolo Chessa. Shortly after joining the firm, Magistretti’s father, Pier Giulio, passed away.

In the immediate postwar reconstruction years, Magistretti began to produce modernist furniture designs, especially for exhibition in R.I.M.A. and the Triennale alongside other important Italian architect-designers like Franco Albini, the Castiglioni brothers, Ignazio Gardella, and Marco Zanuso.

During the 1960s and beyond, Magistretti created a number of sleek, high concept furniture and lighting design for major manufacturers, such as Artemide, Campeggi, Cassina, De Padova, Flou, Fontana Arte, Fritz Hansen, Kartell, Olivari, Oluce, Poggi, Schiffini, and Gebrüder Thonet Vienna. Iconic designs from Magistretti career include the Eclipse Table Lamp (1966, Compasso d’Oro 1967), Selene Stacking Chair (1968), Chimera Lamp (1969), and Giuone Floor Lamp (1969) for Artemide; Maralunga Seating (1973, Compasso d’Oro in 1979) and Nuvola Rossa Bookshelves (1977) for Cassina; and the Sonora Pendant (1976) and Model 233 Atollo Table Lamp (1977, Compasso d’Oro 1979) for Oluce.

Magistretti’s most famous architectural additions to Milan are the Tower in Park in Via Revere (1953-56, in conjunction with Franco Longoni) and the office block in Corso Europa (1955-1957). Other architectural feats include the Towers in Piazzale Aquileia (1961-64), Bassetti House in Azzate (1959-62), Cassina House in Carimate (1964-65), a house in Via Conservatorio in Milan (1963-66), Cusano Milanino Town Hall (1966-69), the Milano San Felice neighborhood in Segrate (1966-69, in partnership with Luigi Caccia Dominioni), and a house in Piazza San Marco (1969-71).

Throughout the course of his career, Magistretti held prestigious professorships at the Royal College of Arts in London and the Domus Academy in Milan. His work has been acquired by important museums around the world, including MoMA New York and the Victoria & Albert in London.

Magistretti passed away in 2006. 

* Images courtesy of Artemide, Cassina, and Gebrüder Thonet Vienna

Founded in 1945 by Giuseppe Ostuni, Oluce is the oldest active lighting design company in Italy. Highly influential in the midcentury, Oluce helped pave the way for Italy’s international success in the lighting design sector while working with some of era’s brightest talents, including Joe Colombo, Bruno Gecchelin , Vico Magistretti, and Marco Zanuso.

Oluce first gained recognition after being represented in  well-regarded Domus magazine. Although the 1950s brought intense competition from a rising number of modernist, Italian lighting brands—such as Arredoluce, Arteluce, Azucena , Lamperti, and Stilnovo—Oluce established itself as a formidable postwar design force through a series of now iconic designs.

In 1951, Oluce debuted a lamp designed by architect-designer Franco Buzzi in the lighting exhibition curated by the Castiglioni brothers for Milan’s IX Triennale. In 1954, architect-designer Tito Agnoli (1931-2012) designed the groundbreaking and highly reduced Model 255/387 Agnoli Floor Lamp, which marked the beginning of a trend in shade-less lamps.

During the early 1960s, Oluce began collaborating with designer Joe Colombo (1930-1971), who was responsible for a number of highly successful Oluce lamps, including the Model 281 Acrilica Table Lamp (1962, Gold Medal Milan’s Triennial 1964); the weatherproof outdoor Fresnel Series (1964-66); Model 291 Spider Lamp (1965, Compasso d'Oro 1967), which also appeared in the 1972 MoMA exhibition Italy: The New Domestic Landscape; the Coupé Floor Lamp (1967, International Design Award 1968); Model 626 Alogena Floor Lamp (1970); and the Flash Lamp (1970s). After the premature death of Colombo in 1971, Oluce named their first indoor halogen light Colombo 626 (1972) in his honor.

Sometime during the early 1970s, the Verderi family gained control of Oluce. Around this time designer Vico Magistretti (1920-2006)—who was one of Italy’s most respected designers and a driving force in Italian design from the 1960s onwards—was appointed Art Director and chief designer, a position he maintained for many years. Iconic designs from Magistretti include the Dim 333 Floor Lamp (1975), Sonora Pendant (1976), the geometrically constructed Model 233 Atollo Table Lamp (1977, Compasso d’Oro 1979), and the Slalom Table Lamp (1981).

In 1992, Oluce hired the emergent Swiss designer Hannes Wettstein (1958-2008) as Art Director, followed by Marco Romanelli in 1995, who brought in a series international contemporary designers to update the company’s collections. Recent collaborators include designers Sebastian Bergne, Fernando and Humberto Campana, Toni Cordero, Toshiyuki Kita, Nendo, and Hans Peter Weidmann.

Many of Oluce’s designs have been acquired by important museums around the world, including MoMA New York,  in Munich, the Milan Triennale, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Kunstmuseum in Düsseldorf.

* Images courtesy of Oluce