Luceplan

Luceplan is one of the companies that renewed Italian lighting in the 1980s: lamps born from technical research into new materials and light sources rather than from decoration. Many have won the Compasso d'Oro and entered museum collections.

Origins

The company was founded in Milan in 1978 by three architects: Riccardo Sarfatti, Paolo Rizzatto and Sandra Severi. Sarfatti was the son of Gino Sarfatti, the founder of Arteluce, and had worked in his father's company from 1969 to 1978; Rizzatto too had designed his first lamp for Arteluce, in 1973. The first Luceplan models were the “D” series: with Rizzatto's D7 (1980) the company won its first Compasso d'Oro, in 1981.

Rizzatto and Meda

From the 1980s Luceplan's name has been linked to the partnership of Paolo Rizzatto and the engineer Alberto Meda. Together they designed the Berenice table lamp (1985, Compasso d'Oro 1987), the Lola (1987, Compasso d'Oro 1989), the Titania pendant (1989), an elliptical structure of aluminium blades with interchangeable coloured filters, and, with Sarfatti, the Metropoli (Compasso d'Oro 1994). The Costanza (1986), with its telescopic stem and polycarbonate shade, a reinterpretation of the classic lamp with a shade, is by Rizzatto alone. In 2008 came another Compasso d'Oro, for Meda and Rizzatto's Mix table lamp.

Luceplan today

In 2010 Luceplan was acquired by the Dutch group Philips; Riccardo Sarfatti died the same year. The company has kept its Milanese base and identity, with about 85% of sales abroad, and has developed a line of sound-absorbing lamps, which combine light with the acoustic treatment of rooms, alongside outdoor lamps and custom solutions for architectural projects.

Sources

• Luceplan – Company
• Wikipedia – Paolo Rizzatto (it)
• Wikipedia – Riccardo Sarfatti (it)