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In search of empathetic design
On the occasion of the Salone del Mobile 2013, Carlotta de Bevilacqua has designed two new lamps for Artemide, both of which are LED-powered yet entirely different from each other.
Entering the elegant building in Via Canova, where Danese is located provides the best possible insight into Carlotta de Bevilacqua’s modus operandi. It is here that she searches for those aspects of light and environment related to wellbeing that have inspired the 100 or so lamps she has designed over the past 15 years. She works surrounded by a young and mostly female team of about 30 people, many of whom are former students from her design courses at Milan Polytechnic. The prototypes of Danese’s novelties are perfectly attuned to the two lamps designed by her this year for Artemide, both of which are led-powered yet entirely different from each other.
The new LED lamps
NullVector and Empatia,
designed by Carlotta de
Bevilacqua for Artemide
In terms of form, Empatia is the simpler of the two. Its led source is housed in a wafer-thin glass tube that absorbs no heat; its light is reflected and radiated via a diffuser blown by Venetian master glassmakers, and designed to maintain luminous efficiency and eliminate dazzle. Decidedly more complex in its structure is the second lamp. Called NullVector, it is the expression of a smoothly united optical and mechanical performance. The main body, in Vega 98 optical aluminium, has a very high reflection coefficient and is generated by the graduated growth of a single perforation and shearing mould. It is both a structural component and an optical part for light-emission control.
Technical drawings
of the Empatia light displayed
in the office of Danese, the
company acquired by Carlotta
de Bevilacqua in 1999
Three transparent pins allow the free passage of light, connecting the body to the low-voltage led optical system with scaled power and flows. Unexpectedly, this lamp—which on paper looks super-technological and cold—emits a pleasantly intense light. The combination of its perforated pattern and multifaceted frame makes for a highly effective pairing.
Carlotta de
Bevilacqua with some
members of her sizeable
staff, many of whom are
her former students
