Taccia Table Lamp

Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni designed Taccia in 1962 by taking a ceiling light and turning it upside down. That single inversion explains everything the lamp does afterwards.

The light source sits low in a fluted aluminium column, pointing up. Above it a bowl of hand-blown Murano glass rests loose inside a painted aluminium reflector, and the matte interior of that reflector catches the upward light and throws it back out sideways. Nothing ever points at the person in the room. Because the bowl is not fixed down, it can be turned by hand to aim the pool of light, and current editions give you the same shape in methacrylate if owning something that heavy in blown glass feels unwise.

It stands 485 mm tall, the reflector opens to 373 mm across and the fluted base measures 142 mm. Production now runs an integrated LED at 2700K, dimmable from 10 to 100 percent, which holds the warm colour the original incandescent gave while removing the heat that used to build up inside the column.

Flos still assembles it in Italy. The fluting on that column is still doing the job it was given in 1962, shedding warmth from a bulb aimed squarely at a ceiling that is not there.