Oluce

Heritage

Oluce was founded in 1945 by Giuseppe Ostuni and describes itself as the oldest Italian design company still operating in the lighting world. Its relationship with design began at the IX Triennale in 1951, where it showed a Luminator by Franco Buzzi in the lighting section curated by Achille, Livio and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni. Tito Agnoli's lamps brought Compasso d'Oro nominations in 1955 and 1956.

Philosophy

Oluce treats the evocative force of light as being as important as its function. With over 70 years of technical and lighting-engineering experience, it works with fine, experimental materials (stone, marble, galvanised metals and textured coatings) and continual research into light sources. Since 2015 its Bespoke Tailoring service has offered tailor-made lamps and customised versions of catalogue products for the contract sector.

Iconic Works

Joe Colombo's 281 "Acrilica" (in the catalogue since 1962), the Spider family (Compasso d'Oro 1967), the Coupé (1967) and the 1970 halogen lamp known as "Colombo"; Marco Zanuso's 275; and, from the 1970s, Vico Magistretti's Atollo (1977, Compasso d'Oro 1979), alongside Snow, Kuta, Nara, Lester and Idomeneo.

Today

In the 1970s ownership passed from Ostuni to the Verderi family, with Vico Magistretti as art director. The contemporary catalogue adds designers such as Nendo, Toshiyuki Kita, Gordon Guillaumier, Carlo Colombo, Francesco Rota, Sam Hecht, Nicola Gallizia, Victor Vasilev and Christophe Pillet, while the Milanese company keeps its historic icons in production.