Falkland ceiling lamp
Designer: Bruno Munari
Manufacturer: Danese
The natural shape
Bruno Munari’s formal and conceptual research spans across art, design and communication.
His work definitely shows the influence of Futurism, particularly in adopting the concepts of the aesthetics of speed and the prevailing of dynamism, of the machine as a creative means and the idea of the synthesis of the arts.
Although Munari later distanced himself from the Futuristic movement, some of its main concepts continued to accompany his work.
Consider for example the activity of the CAM (Concrete Art Movement), of which he was among the founders in 1948 and which theorised the synthesis of the arts through expressions of pure shape and colour, released from any kind of symbolic meaning. Art is conceived not as representational but as pure geometric abstractionism, free from any reference to the exterior, created through simple basic images.
The CAM experience leads Munari to develop the research of a serial design which tried to rebuild an aesthetic system stemming from the industrial technologies. This is for instance the way the lamps come about, as machines which light, a perfect combination of the material they are made of and the way they function, just as in nature where each element is ‘assembled’ according to a perfect balance. Following the research of the expressive potential of humble materials, the lamp designs are characterised by simple geometric shapes. The impact they create depends directly on the different types of material used and their colour.
With its artisanal production, Danese becomes fundamental in bridging art and design between the end of the 1950s and the 1980s. It is an example of small company with a great image, producing new expressive languages and independent spaces for design thinking.
Starting from 1958, Munari designs several lamp models for Danese: hexagonal and triangular suspensions, table lamps in various shapes and materials.
In 1964 Munari creates the Falkland lamp, made with a washable elastic fabric.
In the book “Arte come Mestiere”, Munari uses this lamp as an example to explain the concept of the birth of a spontaneous shape.
The Falkland design is created the same way nature creates its forms to combine material and function. The lamp is made up of three fundamental elements: the elasticity of the material, the tension created by the metal circles of various dimensions, the weight which pushes downward. These three components spontaneously produce a shape, creating a perfect balance among the forces.
Thus is the machine-lamp born, carrying out its function occupying the smallest volume at the minimum cost, with minimal use of material and with the minimal symbolic impact.