Giovanni Battista e Giampiero Bassi for Studio Luce ‘Cactus’ Table Lamp

Giovanni Battista e Giampiero Bassi for Studio Luce, ‘Cactus’ table lamp, chrome-plated aluminum, plexiglass, Italy, 1969

Italian design duo Giovanni Battista and Giampiero Bassi designed the ‘Cactus’ table lamp for Studio Luce in 1969. The lamp features a cylindrical base in chrome-plated aluminum, into which curved sheets of transparent plexiglass are inserted. Their repeated, undulating form gives the lamp a rhythmic, tactile quality evocative of a cactus, from which the design takes its name.

In addition, this lamp is a great example of the technical advances in lamp design in Italy, starting in the late 1950s. It represents an imaginative response to the availability of translucent plexiglass sheets. The use of plexiglass opened a whole new range of possibilities in the field of lamp design. The material has the transparent quality of glass, while at the same time being less fragile and therefore less dangerous in use. It also has a very specific way of transmitting the light, which appears to be passing through the sheet slower than through glass. Not to forget, the simple formability is a great benefit that allows the designer to create various constellations. The Cactus lamp is a highly innovative piece of lighting with a strong sense of three-dimensionality.