Flos Table lamp Metal Metal. Dimensions: H 41 cm – Upper part: Ø
28 cm – Base: Ø 8.8 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. 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. 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 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.> Flash sale: special price for a limited
time only.
