Milan 2013: Venetian designer Luca Nichetto presented a lamp with the height, size and luminosity of a TV in Milan last week.
Luca Nichetto describes the lamp for Italian brand Foscarini as "a new light typology which emits oblique light," explaining how it throws light sideways to create a focal point in a room.
He called his creation Stewie after the cartoon baby in American television show Family Guy, referencing its "enormous egghead and spindly body." He says: "This extremely friendly shape… becomes a kind of little person about the house."
The piece is made of expanded polyethylene, covered with fabric normally used in the sportswear industry to reflect light around the cavity and create a soft glow.
Foscarini presented Stewie at Euroluce lighting trade fair alongside the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan, where other lamp launches included pendant lamps by Zaha Hadid for Slamp and Konstantin Grcic's reworking of Achille Castiglioni's iconic Parentesi lamp.
Meanwhile in the city centre, Luca Nichetto unveiled a collection of furniture created in collaboration with Japanese designer Nendo.
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Here's some more information from Foscarini:
An original take on the floor lamp, which develops horizontally and has stolen its name from a cartoon character.
Stewie, a Luca Nichetto design, is the new element for the house of today, brand-new, unconventional and friendly. It breaks the mould, choosing a light source that skims the ground, large sizes and a light, soft and flexible material.
To get the desired result, we selected a heat-shaped, expanded polyethylene covered by a particular fabric with the properties of a prism, adopting the same technology as used in the sporting world or for travel accessories. This particular combination of materials conveys a warm, soft aspect and lends itself perfectly to the idea, which gave birth to Stewie. Being heat-shaped, gives in fact maximum freedom to obtain the good-sized concave shape planned to reflect the light with a certain soft effect.
Stewie stands out for the visual impact of its shape, its size and the unusual light it emits. Even when off, it retains its theatrical characteristics and the distinctive personality which it brings to each environment: cutting across boundaries in use and unmistakable in shape, it is perfectly at ease, whether in the bedroom or the living areas as well as in communal spaces: use it in compositions to create comfortable lounge areas.