Flos Floor lamp Grey Metal. Dimensions: H 145 cm – Upper part: Ø
72 cm – Base: Ø 32 cm – Cable: L 190 cm. Born in Milan in 1935,
Italian architect and designer Mario Bellini has been awarded the prestigious
Compasso d'Oro Prize eight times. Twenty-five of his works form part of the
permanent collection at the MoMA in New York, which devoted a retrospective to
him in 1987. It was in 1969 that Mario Bellini designed Chiara: a sculptural,
innovative floor lamp delivered flat, made of a single sheet of flexible steel.
More than fifty years after its introduction, Flos is reissuing the icon in a
modernised version. In the 1960s, Italian designers, from Joe Colombo to
Superstudio, experimented in all directions: they reinvented the furniture
industry by taking advantage of the technologies and materials that appeared in
those exciting times. In 1969, Mario Bellini invented Chiara, a lamp delivered
in a flatpack, made of a single sheet of stainless steel that the user had to
roll up and bend to give it its final cylindrical shape. This desire to involve
the end user in creating their objects was booming. Mario Bellini: “One day in
my studio, it occurred to me that we could use light as it manifests itself in
our daily lives – rarely directly, almost always in some way reflected or
filtered by the clouds, the walls of the city or by indoor spaces. I decided to
design a device that would take light from an artificial source and introduce it
to our surroundings with intelligence and grace. I took scissors, a large piece
of cardboard, started cutting out something that could be made into a cylinder
with a large two-part cover on top that acts as a reflector for the light source
housed in the based. Flos decided to bring the Chiara lamp out of its archives
and deliver a version modernised by Mario Bellini himself. The black rubber
edging, which borders the metal sheet, has been completely reworked to make it
more solid. A dimmer has been added to choose the power of the lighting. As for
the inside of the cylinder, its surface is treated with a matt white plastic
film to better concentrate the light. Mario Bellini also gave Chiara a little
sister: a miniature version that can be placed on a cabinet, coffee table or the
shelves of a bookcase.> Flash sale: special price for a limited
time only.
