16 January 2014
The inspiration for the Caboche lamp, designed by Patricia Urquiola and Eliana Gerotto in 2005, came from a Bakelite bracelet of the 1930s. An appropriate reference to the world of jewelry, and one which is echoed in the name’s allusion to the technical term for one of the best-known cuts for diamonds and other precious stones. And the hemispheres that give volume to the surface of this polymethylmethacrylate ring do resemble cabochons, while the shape of the ring itself recalls that of a “head” (the literal meaning of the French word caboche). But the sense of the precious also comes from the transparence of the material, which renews the crystal of old chandeliers in a purity that creates refractions of the light thanks to the way the spheres act as lenses. Further biomorphic analogies could be found with the sea urchin. The whole thing is characterized by a balance between reason and nature, and is an example of Urquiola’s gift for the design of new classics, a talent that she has inherited from her teachers, Castiglioni and Magistretti. Production: Foscarini.
