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Ferruccio Laviani
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Ferruccio Laviani was born in Cremona in 1960 and studied architecture at the Politecnico di Milano under Achille Castiglioni and Marco Zanuso, graduating in 1986. Those two teachers shaped a generation of Italian designers who understood that function and formal pleasure were not opposites, and their influence shows throughout Laviani's work in his attention to material behaviour and his willingness to use humour as a structural principle.
On graduating, Laviani joined the studio of Michele De Lucchi, becoming a partner in 1986 and remaining until 1991. The De Lucchi years placed him at the centre of Italian post-modern design: De Lucchi had been closely associated with the Memphis group founded by Ettore Sottsass in 1981, and that movement's conviction that objects could carry cultural and emotional charge - not just utility - became embedded in Laviani's own design thinking. During this period he worked on projects for Mandarina Duck, Memphis, Olivetti, and Swatch, gaining experience across product categories and client cultures.
In 1991 Laviani opened his own studio in Milan and in the same year became Art Director at Kartell, a position he has held ever since. The relationship between designer and manufacturer has been unusually sustained: over three decades Laviani has shaped much of Kartell's visual identity, directing not just product lines but the company's spatial and graphic presence. His most commercially significant design for the brand is the Bourgie table lamp (2004), a piece in transparent polycarbonate that quotes Baroque candelabra form with deliberate irony. Bourgie became one of Kartell's best-selling items and entered the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York alongside his Take lamp (2003).
Beyond Kartell, Laviani has served as Art Director for Flos, Foscarini, De Padova, Moroso, and Emmemobili, among others. His lighting debut came in 1992 with the Foscarini Orbital floor lamp, a piece notable for its hovering geometric composition. Later work has increasingly explored the boundary between industrial design and craft. The Good Vibrations cabinet (Fratelli Boffi), a piece that plays with Baroque marquetry through contemporary manufacturing, was acquired by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 2020 for its permanent collection - a confirmation that his work has sustained critical attention beyond the commercial design world.
In 1999 Laviani redesigned the Kartell Museum in Noviglio, a project that won the Premio Guggenheim Impresa and Cultura 2000 award for best company museum. His practice spans product design, interior design, art direction, and graphics, with projects for Bisazza, Dada-Molteni, Poltrona Frau, FontanaArte, Richard Ginori, and Laufen, among many others.
On the Swedish auction market, Laviani's work appears primarily through lighting - ceiling lamps, floor lamps, and table lamps, predominantly Kartell pieces. The Auctionist database records 41 lots across houses including Auktionshuset Kolonn, Stockholms Auktionsverk, and Crafoord Auktioner. Top results include a Four Table for Kartell at 4,600 SEK, a Geen-A floor lamp at 2,800 SEK, and the Foscarini Orbital at 2,200 SEK. Pricing reflects a healthy secondary market for accessible Kartell design in Scandinavia, where his plastic furniture and lamps circulate regularly in estate sales.