A LOOK INTO THE PAST Gae Aulenti, the architect who shaped an era

Gae Aulenti (1927–2012) was one of the most versatile and influential figures in 20th-century Italian design. century. An architect, set designer and lighting designer, she graduated from the Politecnico di Milano in the post-war period when cities, as well as ideas, were being rebuilt. In Milan, then the center of modernism and industrial design, she began her career on the editorial board of the magazine Casabella-Continuità , where she participated in discussions about the direction of new architecture.

In a period when design ideals were based on strict functionalism, Aulenti opposed the dogmas of the International Style. She turned to the “neo-liberty” movement – ​​a direction that advocated a return to tradition, human scale and expressiveness of form. This tendency to connect the past and the present would become her recognizable signature. In a world that still rarely accepted women in architecture, Aulenti imposed herself as a name forging her own path, not asking permission to participate in large projects, but simply taking them on.

The lamp that became a legend

When she designed the Pipistrello lamp for Martinelli Luce in 1965, Aulenti already had a number of successful interior and exhibition projects under her belt. However, it was this lamp that would become her most famous work and a symbol of her design philosophy.

Named after the Italian word for bat ( pipistrello ), the lamp is a combination of technological innovation and sculptural beauty. The telescopic stainless steel leg allows for height adjustment, while the methacrylate diffuser creates a soft, even light without glare. This combination of functionality and the poetics of light has made it an icon of modern design. Today, it is part of the permanent collections of museums such as MoMA in New York and the Vitra Design Museum in Germany.

Aulenti did not design lighting as a technical product, but as an architectural element that communicates with space. For her, the lamp was micro-architecture: an object that carries within itself the logic of space, proportions and light dramaturgy. The same approach is visible in her other models such as Giova and Ruspa (for Fontana Arte), in which light becomes a visual and emotional experience.

Museums, transformations and heritage

In the 1980s, Aulenti became world-famous after winning the competition to convert the Paris train station Gare d’Orsay into a museum. The project, completed in 1986, was exceptional because it successfully combined the historic structure with a new function. The museum retained the character of the building, while gaining a new narrative of light and space. Large clocks, glass vaults and discreetly integrated lighting created a space that breathes history, yet belongs to the present.

Projects for the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya in Barcelona, ​​and many others followed. In each of them, Aulenti demonstrated an exceptional sense of context and proportion, combining light, material, and the historical layer of the space into a unique whole.

Her contribution to design lies not only in individual objects, but in philosophy. She believed that place dictates form and that design does not arise from the repetition of one’s own style, but from an understanding of the space in which it is created. She rejected the uniformity of modernism and sought a dialogue between old and new, rational and emotional.

Today, Gae Aulenti is celebrated as a pioneer of female presence in architecture and design, and as an author who proved that beauty does not come from trends, but from consistency with an idea. Her lamps and spaces continue to be produced, reproduced, and studied. Each new generation of lighting designers finds inspiration in them.

For those of us who do custom lighting , Aulenti is a lasting lesson in the meaning of light. She showed that good lighting is not just a technical result, but an architectural gesture. That light can tell the story of a space, but also shape emotion.

In an age of mass production, her work reminds us that hand-crafted signatures, thoughtful materials, and an understanding of context never go out of style. Every lamp we design can have its own reason for being. Just like Gae Aulenti did.