PurplePrice Mag · · 2 min read
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The Arco lamp is one of the most famous objects of Italian design. It was designed in 1962 by the brothers Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni for Flos, which has produced it without interruption ever since.
Suspended light, without a ceiling
The idea is simple: to bring a light over a table, as a pendant lamp would, without having to fix anything to the ceiling. Arco is a floor lamp: the base stands to one side and a long arc carries the light exactly where it is needed, leaving the space beneath free. The table can go anywhere, and the lamp can be moved.
Marble, steel and aluminium
The base is a block of white Carrara marble weighing about 65 kilos, with bevelled edges: a counterweight that is also a clean shape. The marble has a hole right through it: by slipping in a pole, even a broom handle, the lamp can be lifted and moved. From the base rises the steel arc, made of sections that slide into one another to adjust its length. At the top is the aluminium reflector with its perforated cap, which lets the heat escape. The reflector reaches about two metres from the base.
A much-copied icon
In more than sixty years its shape has hardly changed. Arco is also one of the most imitated design pieces, and Flos has long defended the design in court: the case against the “Fluida” lamp played an important part in extending copyright protection to industrial design. Arco is in the collections of MoMA and the Triennale Design Museum in Milan, and in 2020 it received a product career Compasso d'Oro, an award for historical designs that have stood the test of time.
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