Designer: Achille and Pier Castiglioni | Year: 1962 | Manufacturer: Flos
Overarching design
A standing lamp vs. an overhead light source — never an easy decision in the best of times. Until the clever Arco lamp came along, that is, and served both needs. Inspired by the design of a street light, providing overhead lighting without ceiling suspension, the Arco lamp by brothers Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni is genius design thinking in arresting form. With an arched arm that cantilevers outward, allowing for movement both around and below, and grounded by a heavy base made from Carrara marble, the lamp is designed for grace and stability.
The Arco's immaculate form and finish is the product of refined engineering — a strong suit of its designers. No detail was spared in the making of it: the beveled corners of its marble base for instance are designed not to hurt should you fall against it. And that odd hole in the lamp's base? Designed so a stick can be pushed through, enabling two people to lift and carry it.
Enduring classic
The Castiglioni brothers — trained architects — were very interested in the intersection of technology and design. They were industrial designers in Italy's post-war design renaissance. Besides working on their architectural practice along with a third brother Livio, Pier Giacomo separately collaborated with Achille on numerous design objects. At the 1957 exhibition "Colori e forme nella casa d'oggi" (Colors and Forms in Today's Home) in Como, Achille and Pier shocked Italian design puritans with their showcase of styles that playfully merged old and new. Designs like "Sella", a telephone stool with a bicycle saddle as a seat were perfect examples of the brothers' viewpoint that good design must restructure an object's function, form and production process.
The two brothers were most successful, however, with the lighting they designed for Flos and Artemide.
First dibs
The Arco lamp has been in constant production since 1962; so popular that it is said that 1 in 10 homes in Italy have the Arco (or a version of it). No other lighting fixture has accumulated as many imitators, but the original licensed version has only ever been manufactured by Flos. Excluding the Limited Edition run made with a black marble base in 2002, the materials used in the production of the Arco Lamp have not changed since its launch, making it easy to tell a fake apart from the real deal. Where as the original costs about $3,000, an Arco replica can go as low as a fifth of an original.
In an ongoing series, AD trains the spotlight on the Goliaths of design and their standout legacies that altered the course of design history. This is the second feature in the ‘Design as Icon' series.
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