Urano Lamp

Fusing old-world craftsmanship with a contemporary perspective, Salvatori eschews traditional applications of marble. Tapping into its impressive network of designers and architects, such as John Pawson and Piero Lissoni, the Italian brand’s suite of furniture, bathroom products, and home accessories take on textural, matte, and earthy qualities. Under Salvatori’s direction, marble loses its gaudy sheen and regains the elemental allure of natural stone. And in Sicilian-bred designer and architect Elisa Ossino, the brand has fostered a holistic marriage. With a scenographic style that casts everyday objects as stars in striking compositions, her multidisciplinary acumen—encompassing everything from set design to interiors to products—shows its influence in the Urano Lamp’s dramatic verve. “Its shape is so pure and soft,” says CEO and impresario Gabriele Salvatori, who became so enamored with the lamp that he placed one inside his Milan pied-à-terre. “When Elisa showed it to me, I was immediately struck by its beauty.”   

It’s no small feat molding brutalist blocks of Bianco Carrara marble, sourced from the company’s quarries in Tuscany, into celestial, seemingly lithe forms, but Salvatori and Ossino make it look effortless. Her mastery of that material has yielded a collection of arresting pieces that showcase an acute dexterity with essential lines and geometries: a cylindrical plissé, monumental shower tray, and wafer-thin coffee tables among them. Urano follows suit, with a profile that begins remarkably lean—four millimeters to be exact—at the rim, and gradually grows thicker toward the base, rendering a strikingly flawless sphere. A diamond drill is used to hollow out a meticulously smoothed void for the diffused light source, but Urano, which comes in three sizes, is equally prolific during the day as it is at night. “This is not merely a lamp,” Salvatori says. “It’s a sculpture.”