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P50 YEARS OF LIGHT IPPISTRELLO
Alessandra Cenna
An international design cult object, exhibited in the most important museums in the world, Pippistrello the lamp turns 50.
Designed in 1965 by the Italian architect Gae Aulenti (1927-2012) for Martinelli Luce, in the context of the development of an Olivetti shop in Paris (famous brand of the typewriters at the time), it was created to ‘’ break ‘’
the functional atmosphere of the place.
True to the style «Art Nouveau», the lamp was really innovative for the sixties with it’s telescopic leg system in stainless steel that allows the wings of bats (pippistrello in Italian) to adjust its height from 66 to 86 cm.
Made of white opal methacrylate, a kind of thermoformed plastic, the lampshades, of a silhouette of an unprecedented magnitude for the time, gradually diffuse the light. It folds, bends, bows to evoke the deployment of the wings of this nocturnal animal.
Over the years, the Pippistrello was produced in other colors. In tribute to Gae Aulenti, who died in 2013, Martinelli Luce pulled out it’s little sister, the Minipippistrello, a table lamp fixed with simplified design.
This year, a new version in gold comes out in limited edition for its 50th anniversary.
Fifty years have passed, but the Pippistrello has not aged, it doesn’t cease to be reissued and remains a contemporary object always coveted.
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