FLOS’s New Taccia: 58 Years in the Making
Introducing Taccia LED 2016, the new version of FLOS’s iconic Taccia table lamp, designed by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni. A seemingly simple adjustment to Taccia, this new product actually reverts back to and accomplishes the art of the original 1958 design intention.
Taccia LED 2016’s perfect bowl shape was created using the most advanced molding technologies, allowing it to maintain a uniform surface both inside and out. Thanks to the use of an LED light source, FLOS has been able to recover the original vision of the Castiglioni brothers: a plastic bowl reflector.
This vision in 1958 was discarded – and changed to use a more expensive, heavier glass instead, because the heat emitted by the incandescent light source at the time deformed the plastic material.
Taccia LED 2016 will launch in September and will be available in either black or anodized silver finishes.
In addition, FLOS is excited to launch Taccia Small later this month, which is perfectly faithful to the original model, with a glass reflector, but with reduced dimensions and new color choices in black, anodized silver, violet or bronze.
TACCIA LED 2016
design ACHILLE e PIER GIACOMO CASTIGLIONI
As is proved by the precious historical material found in the archives of Fondazione Achille Castiglioni, in the Castiglioni brothers’ original 1958 design of the Taccia table lamp, the iconic bowl reflector wasn’t made of glass but transparent plastic. This idea was discarded though because the heat emitted by the incandescent light source deformed the plastic material. The prototype was then developed and produced by Flos in 1962, with its famous big blown glass bowl.
Thanks to the use of a cutting-edge LED light source, with very high efficiency and color rendering index, but reduced heat emission, Flos has finally been able to edit a new version of Taccia with a transparent plastic diffuser that is accurately faithful to the original concept. The most advanced injection moulding technologies have helped to achieve a perfect bowl shape, maintaining a uniform surface both inside and out. In addition, the use of laser cutting techniques with unparalleled performance mean that the injection point is now invisible. The transparency and brilliancy of the methacrylate are also guaranteed to last forever thanks to the special properties of the material used, which does not degrade under the effects of UV rays.
The end result of this ‘recovered’ version of Taccia is amazing in terms of its quality and beauty. It will be available alongside the existing Taccia LED, featuring the classic glass bowl. Compared to the previous LED model, this version will offer consumers a more favorable price, in addition to the possibility of dimming the light intensity.
Finishes: black or anodized silver + new colors – PMMA diffuser
Light source: COB LED – 2700k – 2068lm total – CRI 93 – 28 W
TACCIA – EVOLUTION OF AN IDEA
TIMELINE
1958: Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni decide to design a table lamp for indirect lighting.
December 1958: after several studies, they make a prototype with a white opaque plastic reflector and a support bowl, also made from transparent plastic.
1960-61: after a series of tests, they exclude the possibility of using plastic because the heat emitted by the concentrated light source deforms the supporting bowl.
March 1962: Flos (based in Merano) commit themselves to completing development work on a final prototype and to producing the lamp. The final prototype is made of various parts including:
– an aluminum reflector, with a matt white lacquered outer and a polished white inner surface
– a supporting bowl in transparent glass, resistant to high temperature
2010: Flos studies the possibility of replacing the traditional light source, an incandescent bulb, with a new remote phosphor LED source, and introduces Taccia LED. This is one of the first successful cases of upgrading the technology of a historical, iconic piece of lighting design.
2016: Flos tests the use of PMMA (poly methyl methacrylate) to produce the bowl Thanks to the use of a low heath emitting COB LED source and innovative plastic manufacturing technology, the bowl now retains its shape perfectly. The new version of Taccia, faithful to the original 1958 prototype, is introduced during the 55th Salone del Mobile in Milan.
The evolution of the Taccia project as described by Achille Castiglioni himself in an excerpt from the film:
Technology & Design
Lecture delivered by Achille Castiglioni, Florence University, 1986
“This [editor’s note: Taccia] is a very interesting lamp because of its history, and because some people today think that it is a post-modern object. This is very funny. It was made in 1962 and my brother and I had not the slightest intention of making a post-modern lamp. It is quite interesting because with our insane minds, born of the rationalism from the North Italian school of Architecture, with people like Rogers and his friends, as well as the others, like Terragni and so on, we couldn’t have cared less about this way of thinking…. This is the prototype drawing. I have to say that this lamp was conceived the wrong way round, and this is something I enjoy saying… Flos still didn’t exist and we had designed this object […], with transparent plastic material used to make a transparent bowl, which was meant to support a reflector, so that the reflected light went up, then back down, and so on, through this transparent bowl. When we had this nice unveiling and put the object there, the heated plastic material went flat, and so our design was completely wrong. Yes, it was totally wrong because only when we tested the materials could we see that [editor’s note: the plastic] returned from the shape we had given it to its original shape, which was that of a flat sheet. So we made it from glass. This is the final design. And you can see its base shaped like a Doric column, made from extruded aluminium, which is designed to cool down this sort of stove. At the base of this object the heat is so great, so if you enlarge the surface you cool it, like the fins on a small motor.” Achille Castiglioni
TACCIA SMALL
design ACHILLE and PIER GIACOMO CASTIGLIONI
Since 2016, the traditional table lamp providing reflected light is now also available in a small version. Perfectly faithful to the classic 1962 model, with a glass reflector, but with reduced dimensions and new colour choices.
Finishes: black, anodized silver, violet or bronze – glass diffuser
Light source: LED – 2700k – 1290lm total – CRI 92 – 16 W
