Ettore Sottsass’s Convention-Bucking Valigia Desk Lamp

Ever since the Anglepoise lamp’s introduction in 1933, desk lamps typically cantilevered the light source outwards from the base.Roughly four decades later, Ettore Sottsass threw this convention out with his irreverent Valigia desk lamp. There is no counterweighted base, just four legs that support the lamp head as if it’s a tabletop. The form demands commitment, sitting directly above whatever you’re reading. Sottsass added a handle at the top, envisioning this as an object you’d carry from place to place. (“Valigia” is Italian for “suitcase.”) It’s worth noting that Sottsass designed this in 1977, foreshadowing the Memphis movement by a few years. Here in the 2020s, original manufacturer Stilnovo has brought it back onto the market. But I think they missed a trick: While they’ve changed the lighting to LED, they failed to add a rechargeable battery as the power source. Had they done that and removed the cord, the design would’ve been closer to what Sottsass would’ve wanted.