Italian designers Lucidi and Pevere designed a funnel-shaped lamp made of concrete for Italian brand Foscarini.

Called Aplomb, the pendant light appears to have a rough surface but a transparent layer gives it a smooth finish. The product also comes in white and brown.

Foscarini launched the lamps at Superstudio Più in Zona Tortona in Milan last month.

See all our stories about Milan 2010 in our special category.

Here's some more information from the designers and Foscarini:

Together with Bahia this item starts off the collaboration with Foscarini. The purpose was to realize a small suspension lamp which could express a self material feature in opposition to impersonal and cold minimalism. We chose the cement because it is poor, very expressive and changeable for its own nature. It took two years approximately to get the right thickness ready – in some areas it becomes a real skin - and to find the craftsmen able to do this jump from architecture to design. Despite it's a semi-manufactured material and “not finished”, Aplomb easily succeed in introducing itself both in contract and home sectors according to a linear or grouped logic of multiplication. Starting mixture may be grey, white or brown. - Lucidi and Pevere

Visible concrete is part of the language of modern architecture and, with Aplomb, Foscarini presents a model that uses this material with completely new and innovative technology. The material is translated, from large-scale architecture to a small suspension light, for interiors making it an elegant product with a simple formality, inspired by a material that has always been linked to the world of construction. This is what also inspires its name: Aplomb, a plumb-bob traditionally used by masons. However, aplomb also means ‘self-possessed, confident’, like this lamp that distances itself from aseptic minimalism with all the material richness of concrete.

Combining the need to obtain highly reduced dimensions and thickness, detailed finishes and smooth surfaces with the characteristic viscosity and lack of flexibility of concrete was the greatest challenge in developing Aplomb. The result was achieved thanks to the use of a special amalgam, which is particularly fluid in the mould and produces a surface that appears rough, but which is gentle to the touch, as refined by a transparent layer finish. The lamp has an airy design, with the characteristic shape of an upside-down funnel, which mitigates the massive solidity of concrete yet celebrates its material aspect,.

Aplomb creates precise, direct lighting, ideal for tables, peninsulas or counters, alone or in composition. It comes in three colour finishes that highlight its personality and meet different styles: from the classic grey of rough concrete, which gives depth to volumes, to elegant white or warm, intense brown. These are colours that are particularly suitable, either in harmony or contrast to all environments, whether in the home or contract sectors. Aplomb is the archetype of simple and concrete design for Foscarini.

See also:

.

Successful Living by Diesel and Foscarini	More stories on lighting on Dezeen	Heavy by Benjamin Hubert