What Martinelli Luce is known for
Italian lighting house founded 1950 in Lucca, Tuscany by designer Elio Martinelli. Produces Gae Aulenti's 1965 Pipistrello lamp, originally made for Olivetti's Paris showroom; still manufactured in Lucca under his daughter Emiliana.
Martinelli Luce was founded in 1950 in Lucca, Tuscany, when designer Elio Martinelli turned a cellar in the city's old centre into what he called his 'Laboratory.' The company built its early identity on injection-moulded plastic and methacrylate lighting, designed primarily by Martinelli and by architect Gae Aulenti. Its defining piece is the Pipistrello, designed by Aulenti in 1965 for the Olivetti showroom in Paris and produced by Martinelli Luce ever since; the lamp's name comes from its shade, four curved opaline methacrylate panels shaped to evoke outstretched wings. Martinelli Luce remains an independent, family-run company, today led by Emiliana Martinelli, Elio's daughter, with production still concentrated in Lucca.
How ORBIS reads this city
Best for — The 1965 bat-wing Pipistrello lamp, an icon of Italian lighting modernism.
More in Paris
- Balenciaga — Paris
- Bourrienne Paris X — Paris
- Cartier — Paris
- Céline — Paris
- Chanel — Paris
- Charvet — Paris
- Creed — Paris
- Dior — Paris
Where next
- Flos — Italy
- The Conran Shop — London
- Alix D. Reynis — Paris
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