Carlo Urbinati on the magical world of Foscarini

What was it about Foscarini that first drew you in?


When I arrived in Murano, the island where for 1,000 years they have been doing one thing – talking, imagining, designing and producing glass, I was lucky being an ‘outsider’ because people shared with me some of their production secrets as they thought that being a foreigner I did not understand. I therefore wouldn’t be in competition with them. So, I had a fantastic opportunity to reach behind the production systems of a material that is so important for all lighting, and that was it!

I am interested in some of the big leaps you have taken.

When I joined the company in 1981, Foscarini was developing and selling special lighting systems only in Murano glass. When I say special, I mean site-specific pieces that were never produced twice. From day one we did not rely on our own production, so I could get in touch with different production facilities which turned out to be an enriching approach. We began dealing with a range of makers because we had different problems we wanted to solve. Nowadays, we no longer work only with blown glass, but also paper, carbon fibre, cement… any type of material that is needed to develop the concept. Being completely free with no material constraints, we can follow the ideas and find the best material and technology to develop the product idea in the best possible way.

The Aplomb lamp collection is fascinating. What is the story behind the lamp that so beautifully shapes cement, a material usually found in buildings?

Aplomb takes its name from the plumb-bob, a tool used mainly in construction to determine the vertical direction of a specific point. In literal terms, Aplomb recalls the ability to remain completely straight thanks to its weight and perfect perpendicularity to the floor. Figuratively, Aplomb means self-confidence and therefore this is an object that reveals its true nature. The idea for Aplomb was only worth exploring if it was produced in cement. So we went to see the people who had spent a lifetime producing this material, they know everything about it, and with our idea and their knowledge we created something basically new. The major difficulty was to adapt a material usually used for large-scale buildings into an extremely delicate product that is small, extremely simple and finely detailed. The heart of the project was the leap in scale, because in this case we wanted to create a jewel in concrete. It doesn’t happen every time but most of the time, if we are lucky, working with designers and artisanal suppliers we create something new, something that did not exist before. We recently added colour to the concrete mixture which was a challenge to get the correct result with each different shape. By building up experience you learn a lot, and sometimes you find a way to make it easier and better.

Is there a kind of magic in those collaborations?

This is the reason I am doing what I do. The interesting part of the story is imagining something that is not on the paper when we receive a new design. We always push it to get more character, a different kind of light effect. That’s why we create problems in the beginning, we want more. We push the concept to be far away from normal. Normal is what everybody does. We are very lucky because we are working with the most fascinating material you could imagine, and that is light. The pleasure and emotion when you light up a new model you have been designing for so long. You think you know what is going to happen, but sometimes light gives more and surprises you. Light might be playing with the body of the lamp and it may be reflecting or creating different effects. We cannot imagine that on the paper, so it is the process that is interesting. When Enzo Ferrari was asked about his favourite car, his response was the next one because the process of working on the next one is fascinating. And this is also my answer when people ask me which is my favourite lamp. I always answer: the next one! When it is finished, it’s finished.

Foscarini has had a long relationship with the designer Rodolfo Dordoni who sadly passed away earlier this year.  

We met in 1988. Rodolfo was only one year older than me but he already had a lot of experience and he was able to understand more than just products. From a designing point of view, he is one of only two designers who brought us a product which is exactly as you see it now – the Lumiere lamp by Rodolfo and Filo by Andrea Anastasio. I remember Filo came out of a big bag that Andrea used to travel with. He always brings his stuff with him and just like Mary Poppins, he opens it up and something pops out. It was a few days before Christmas and, like Lumiere, it was perfect. Generally we love to work through the proposals together which was the story of Rodolfo’s recent Nile lamp. We were impressed by the dynamic connection of the two different materials, marble at the base which is very weighty and rich, in contrast with the effect of the blown glass on top.

The inventiveness of Foscarini is now told through the ‘Vite’ project. It’s very different to any other lighting campaign, what was the concept?

At the end of 2018, we weren’t satisfied with running another catalogue without people in it, no life. That’s why the name of it is ‘Vite’ which in Italian means lives. We decided to bring the lamps down from the pedestal where you always see design pieces represented in a very styled picture, where everything is under control. We wanted it to be true life and we wanted it to be different. To show many homes and the different ways people live: the spaces that belong to them, to share their history. They might have pieces of furniture that are not perfect if you judge them from a design perspective, but it is what makes their home special, unique and personal and we wanted to be part of it. Every place has got its own light. New York is not the same light you find in Copenhagen or Naples. So we wanted different situations and journeys into different spaces. In the end what connects all those stories is our lamps. You can see the same lamp in so many different situations: an historic house and a country house, a small apartment in Shanghai or in a villa in the north of France. So you can understand a lot more about what a lamp by Foscarini brings to a space, when it is lit and also when it is not.