Collection: Piero Castiglioni

Piero Castiglioni started his career in the 1970s, working together with his father Livio, at a time when the first halogen light bulbs were being introduced on the European market, raising a lot of curiosity and interest around sizes and performances previously unheard of. An analysis of these new sources led to the development of the Scintilla lighting system; lighting projects, luminance calculations, custom production of lighting fixtures for art galleries, shops and living spaces were all done in-house at this time. The simultaneous approach to designing, producing fixures and installing them combined craftsmanship and research, experimentation and on-site testing, becoming a legacy and a defining characteristic of all future work. Commissions to design the lighting of important museums, historic city centers, new urban developments, monuments, parks and gardens have led to collaboration with other architects, to the development of new lighting systems and to their production and marketing by industrial manufacturers: the Scintilla system was followed by the Sillaba, Palio, Cestello, Radius, Platea, Light-Shed, Glim Cube, Diablo and Dogma, all designed to meet specific lighting requirements and in the absence of suitable models on the market. This is perhaps why Piero Castiglioni likes to call himself an electrician rather than an architect.