🐚 GHERPE TABLE LAMP BY SUPERSTUDIO

Designed by Superstudio for Poltronova in 1968, Gherpe is a table lamp that refuses to behave like a conventional lighting object. Its sculptural form recalls the shell of a marine creature, while its use of methacrylate, an industrial material, places it somewhere between the organic and the artificial.

Conceived during Superstudio’s experimental research into objects and domestic space, Gherpe is also an early example of interactive lighting design. Rather than simply providing illumination, the lamp establishes a relationship with the user: its overlapping methacrylate elements filter and transform the light, making Gherpe a luminous presence that changes according to how it is experienced.

Functional yet deliberately unconventional, Gherpe turns a familiar typology—the table lamp—into something ambiguous, playful and almost alive. A small luminous creature that sits within a room rather than simply lighting it.

Produced in Italy by Poltronova, Gherpe remains a distinctive expression of Superstudio’s Radical Design research, where technology, artificial materials and imagination challenged conventional ideas of furniture and everyday objects.

#Poltronova #GherpeLamp #Superstudio #RadicalDesign #ItalianDesign

Keywords: Gherpe table lamp, Superstudio, Poltronova, Gherpe 1968, Italian Radical Design, Radical Architecture, Italian lighting design, methacrylate lamp, interactive lighting, designer table lamp, collectible lighting, 1960s Italian design, Made in Italy.

🌼 PASSIFLORA TABLE LAMP BY SUPERSTUDIO

Designed by Superstudio for Poltronova in 1968, Passiflora is a table lamp that imagines a flower growing into a luminous column. Its distorted silhouette floats between the organic and the artificial, challenging the familiar language of lighting and turning an everyday object into an ambiguous presence.

The design originates from a painted cardboard prototype created for the legendary Superarchitettura exhibition in 1966, a manifesto of the emerging Italian Radical Design movement. For Poltronova, cardboard was replaced by a light-permeable material, transforming the original form into the luminous object produced today.

More than an object to illuminate a room, Passiflora creates an atmosphere—transforming light into emotion. Its truncated, almost architectural form plays with scale and perception, while its deliberately artificial interpretation of nature reflects Superstudio’s wider questioning of conventional ideas of objects, interiors and domestic space.

Produced in Italy by Poltronova, Passiflora remains one of the most distinctive examples of Superstudio’s Radical Design, where function, imagery and experimentation come together in a light that is anything but ordinary.

#Poltronova #Passiflora #Superstudio #RadicalDesign #ItalianDesign

Keywords: Passiflora table lamp, Superstudio, Poltronova, Passiflora 1968, Italian Radical Design, Radical Architecture, Italian lighting design, designer table lamp, collectible lighting, Superarchitettura, 1960s Italian design, iconic Italian furniture, Made in Italy

SUPERONDA + FARFALLA🦋

The Superonda sofa by Archizoom Associati for Poltronova, 1967, meets Farfalla, the printed fabric designed by the same group in 1968: two expressions of Archizoom’s irreverent approach to furniture, decoration and mass culture.

With Farfalla, the traditional floral motif gets a deliberately pop disruption. Butterflies and flowers collide with the visual language of American Pop Art and the graphic experiments associated with artists such as Roy Lichtenstein. Andrea Branzi later recalled that the intention was precisely to cross floral decoration with pop imagery inspired by typographic printing, creating a contrast between two apparently incompatible visual worlds.

Applied to Superonda, that contrast becomes even louder. Designed without a conventional frame, legs or backrest, the sofa itself had already challenged the established typology of upholstered furniture. Farfalla adds another layer: pattern is no longer polite decoration, but part of the provocation.

Superonda is composed of two polyurethane elements cut from a single block and can be arranged in different configurations, while Farfalla is today part of Poltronova’s fabric catalogue, produced in polyamide and elastane with a polyurethane midlayer.
Two Archizoom projects. Two different years.
One very unapologetic idea of living.

#Poltronova #SuperondaSofa #ArchizoomAssociati #FarfallaFabric #RadicalDesign

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READING IS FUNDAMENTAL.

Designed by Gianfranco Fini for Poltronova and first introduced in 1975, Regolo is a modular seating system that turns Fini’s fascination with regularity, geometry and seriality into furniture. An armchair, a two-seater or a three-seater sofa: the same essential architectural structure expands according to the space around it.

But Regolo was never conceived to be seen only from the front. Integrated storage compartments run along the sides and back, designed primarily to hold books and objects. This makes the sofa completely accessible from every side and particularly suited to freestanding placement at the center of a room—a piece of furniture that organizes the space around itself rather than simply occupying a wall.

Originally made in pine, today Regolo is reissued by Poltronova with a solid ash wood frame, selected for greater stability and durability, while its generous polyurethane-padded cushions balance the rigorous geometry of the structure with comfort.

Available as a 100 cm armchair, 160 cm two-seater sofa or 220 cm three-seater sofa, Regolo can be upholstered in three different materials: velour, linen or recycled wool. The current palette includes [velour] Mont Blanc / Tuscan sand / wolf gray / light lilac, [linen] flax / celadon / sky blue / old pink and [recycled wool] cream / teal / ocean / taupe
A sofa. A bookcase. A small piece of architecture.
Regolo still plays by its own rules.

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#Poltronova #Regolo #GianfrancoFini #ItalianDesign #ModularSofa

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