Capodanno

The Capodanno lamp is architecture at its most simple: two posts and one beam arise from a foundation. The structure is archetypal, summoning a city gate or, perhaps, Tower Bridge in London. Typical of Sottsass’s work, the materials and colors speak louder than the form. The pedestal-like base elevates the design, signaling something worthy of distinction, but is clad in cheap plastic laminate printed to look like stone. The posts are brass, which is common for lamps but structurally impossible as an architectural material. The lights are red and blue globes, simultaneously Bauhaus- and clown-like, while the beam is the ultimate in industrial banality, a plain fluorescent bulb. True to Alchymia products, the final design is an alchemical transformation greater than the sum of its parts.