Azucena Dominioni Ls2

To join the centenarian club is a remarkable feat in itself, but to live for over a century and leave a lasting impact on the world of Italian mid-century modern furniture design — just as pioneering industrial designer and architect Luigi Caccia Dominioni had — is extraordinary. His vintage table lamps, coffee tables, chairs and other furnishings are demonstrative of exemplary technique, theory and quality workmanship — all characteristics of the Milanese designer’s signature style.

Caccia Dominioni graduated from Milan’s oldest university, the Polytechnic University of Milan, in 1936. A leading center for design innovation during the first half of the 20th century, the institution’s alumni includes notable Italian architects and designers such as Gio Ponti, Vittoriano Vigano and brothers Livio and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni. In 1937, the Castiglioni brothers and Caccia Dominioni opened a multi-award winning studio together and presented groundbreaking designs for radios in Bakelite shells at the 1940 Milan Triennial.

The Second World War forced Caccia Dominioni to pause his professional ambitions in order to serve in the Italian military, and the postwar years saw much of his most esteemed designs take shape. In 1947, alongside Ignazio Gardella and Corrado Corradi Dell’Acqua, Caccia Dominioni founded the furniture manufacturing company Azucena, where he designed iconic pieces such as the Catalina chair and a range of lighting that includes the Lp10 wall light, the Lsp3 wall light and the Lsp6 flush mount light.

Like a fine Italian wine, Caccia Dominioni got even better with time. He collaborated with the likes of Olivari and Lualdi well into his 80s, debuting legendary pieces such as the C.d.o. chair and the Super door. And while many of his celebrated architectural works materialized during the 1950s and 1960s — such as the Teatro Filodrammatici and the Galleria Strasburgo — one of Caccia Dominioni’s best known structures, the fountain in Milan’s Piazza San Babila, was built near the end of 20th century when the designer was 83 years old.

Caccia Dominioni was a winner of the Compasso d’Oro, one of the oldest and most prestigious awards in the design industry. When he died at 103 in 2016, he left behind an exceptional legacy of furniture design and architectural innovations.

Find vintage Luigi Caccia Dominioni chandeliers and pendants, floor lamps, armchairs and other furniture on 1stDibs.

Chandeliers — simple in form, inspired by candelabras and originally made of wood or iron — first made an appearance in early churches. For those wealthy enough to afford them for their homes in the medieval period, a chandelier's suspended lights likely exuded imminent danger, as lit candles served as the light source for fixtures of the era. Things have thankfully changed since then, and antique and vintage chandeliers and pendant lights are popular in many interiors today.

While gas lighting during the late 18th century represented an upgrade for chandeliers — and gas lamps would long inspire Danish architect and pioneering modernist lighting designer Poul Henningsen — it would eventually be replaced with the familiar electric lighting of today.

The key difference between a pendant light and a chandelier is that a pendant incorporates only a single bulb into its design. Don’t mistake this for simplicity, however. An Art Deco–styled homage to Sputnik from Murano glass artisans Giovanni Dalla Fina (note: there is more than one lighting fixture that shares its name with the iconic mid-century-era satellite — see Gino Sarfatti’s design too), with handcrafted decorative elements supported by a chrome frame, is just one stunning example of the elaborate engineering that can be incorporated into every component of a chandelier.

Chandeliers have evolved over time, but their classic elegance has remained unchanged. Not only will the right chandelier prove impressive in a given room, but it can also offer a certain sense of practicality. These fixtures can easily illuminate an entire space, while their elevated position prevents them from creating glare or straining one’s eyes. Certain materials, like glass, can complement naturally lit settings without stealing the show. Brass, on the other hand, can introduce an alluring, warm glow. While LEDs have earned a bad reputation for their perceived harsh bluish lights and a loss of brightness over their life span, the right design choices can help harness their lighting potential and create the perfect mood. A careful approach to lighting can transform your room into a peaceful and cozy nook, ideal for napping, reading or working.

For midsize spaces, a wall light or sconce can pull the room together and get the lighting job done. Perforated steel rings underneath five bands of handspun aluminum support a rich diffusion of light within Alvar Aalto's Beehive pendant light, but if you’re looking to brighten a more modest room, perhaps a minimalist solution is what you’re after. The mid-century modern furniture designer Charlotte Perriand devised her CP-1 wall lamps in the 1960s, in which a repositioning of sheet-metal plates can redirect light as needed.

The versatility and variability of these lighting staples mean that, when it comes to finding something like the perfect chandelier, you’ll never be left hanging. From the whimsical — like the work of Beau & Bien’s Sylvie Maréchal, frequently inspired by her dreams — to the classic beauty of Paul Ferrante's fixtures, there is a style for every room. With designs for pendant lights and chandeliers across eras, colors and materials, you’ll never run out of options to explore on 1stDibs.