Chandelier Lighting - Italy Still Leads the Way in Lighting Design
Italy is symbolic ofpassion and style, gastronomic delicacies and seemingly endless sunshine. Easy living inhabitants wear life like a loose-fitting Gucci overcoat, as outsiders we are only too willing to believe that its immaculately dressed. But look beyond their carefree, laid back demeanor and you'll realize that, actually, they're profoundly serious about almost anything; their food, fashion (any Italian octogenarian will testify that looking effortlessly cool within a canary-coloured mohair suit is not any mean feat) and exquisite art, architecture and design.
orb chandelier
One of the country's many enduring style legacies which it's rightly proud, is definitely the transformation of lighting from functional object to art; a masterpiece of design in harmony with technology and engineering. Nothing represents this a lot more than modern chandelier lighting.
Italy has been lighting just how since the end of The Second World War, when several talented Italian industrial designers, like the Castiglioni brothers, Vico Magistretti, Gino Sarfatti and Pietro Chiesa, funded by small entrepreneurial families, reinvigorated Italian lighting design and started a movement that has made it by far the most desirable on earth. By rethinking restructuring and function form using new materials and futuristic shapes, they captured the sanguine mood from the nation to produce witty, elegant classics such as the minimalist 'Luminator' (1955), 'Toio' (1962) and Richard Sapper's 'Tizio' (1972).
industrial chandelier
Chandelier lighting
As time passes, advancements in technology and engineering ended in increasingly high performance lighting and, with it, the ability to transform the atmosphere of any architectural plan, from warm and cosy to avant-garde and contemporary. Designers now enjoyed the liberty to realise all kinds of new possibilities, and glass lighting specifically was elevated towards the rank of 'sculpture'.
The beating heart of glass lighting production and design was but still is Venice. The place to find the much-prized Murano glass industry, named right after the islands where it really is made, they are making hand-blown glass for shades and crystal droplets more than 200 years. Indeed, Murano glass chandeliers constitute the pinnacle of Italian glass making using their intense colours, versatile designs and durability. New glass treatments have meant the designs will also be incredibly robust which suggests they can appear in places where earlier glass designs could have been too fragile.
With designers eager to pursue ever more imaginative and jaw-dropping means of having fun with light and colour, it absolutely was only a point of time until they harnessed the refractive qualities of Swarovski crystal. Daniel Swarovski revolutionised crystal cutting in 1892 to make a product of unmatched beauty, prized because of its versatility, brilliant radiance and vivid colour. Crystal is used in probably the most show-stopping chandelier lighting designs featured in the most exclusive spaces on the planet.
Unique, evocative and built to last
While lots of the processes are increasingly high-tech, Italian lighting design remains true to its conventional methods of precision handcrafting. The thrill of buying and living with bespoke, handcrafted lighting, unlike buying mass produced versions (which are often copies of Italian designs), is that not just have you been guaranteed the very best quality and durability, but your fixtures, colours, sizes and finishes are unique. Being handmade to patented designs implies that whereas the normal size for mass produced fittings is around 300 to 400mm and are limited to just three lamps, your handcrafted products can be made to become 700 to 12000mm wide and last to 18 lamps.
Good lighting is known to positively improve the ambiance, character and appeal of any luxury living quarters, and Italian lighting in particular is renowned for blending functionality with beauty. So whether your home demands vintage glamour or contemporary cool, it's worth taking the time to source a quality range of designer, handcrafted Italian lights and chandeliers to enhance the look of any room in your home, bar or restaurant.