From his early start at his father’s boutique furniture and cabinetry atelier — Arredamenti Borsani (ABV) — Italian designer Osvaldo Borsani began to steadily dream to life the movement-inducing pieces that would eventually lead to him founding his innovative furniture company, Tecno, with his twin brother, Fulgenzio.
Born in the commune of Varedo in northern Italy’s Lombardy region, Borsani studied at the Brera Academy in Milan — the same school attended by such luminaries as designer Piero Fornasetti and artist Lucio Fontana — as well as the Polytechnic University of Milan. He first worked for the family furniture-making firm, ABV, an atelier influenced by the more expressive and curvaceous wing of Art Deco design. Borsani took over Arredamenti Borsani in 1937.
With his stylish and technically innovative furniture, Borsani helped change the face of Italian design in the 1950s and ’60s. His sofas and chairs, featuring deeply upholstered seating and adjustable position settings, have an aura of optimism and efficiency that still seems fresh and lively today.
While he is today recognized as a master of mid-century modernist Italian furniture, Borsani is most famous these days for cofounding Tecno. (He and Fulgenzio also created Villa Borsani, a visionary mid-century estate cherished for its modern lines and exquisite custom furnishings.)
When Borsani opened Tecno, an office-focused maker of industrial design, his design sensibilities had evolved toward furnishings with strong, simple forms enhanced by mechanical innovations, as with the P40 adjustable armchair.
When they were originally released, Tecno pieces like the P40 and the award-winning D70 sofa bed were acclaimed as cutting-edge, and they are still considered groundbreaking in their adaptability and functionality. The firm quickly garnered widespread acclaim for its tech-forward designs and quality craftsmanship.
Borsani would be Tecno’s lead designer for 30 years, while partnering on projects with the likes of architect Eugenio Gerli and fostering work by Vico Magistretti, Carlo De Carli, Robin Day and others.
Borsani designed pieces for Tecno until shortly before his death in 1985, when his daughter Valeria and her husband, Marco Fantoni, took over the creative work.
Today, the family’s legacy is preserved by Borsani’s architect grandson Tommaso Fantoni, who, along with Norman Foster, curated a blockbuster retrospective of Osvaldo Borsani’s work at Milan’s Triennale Design Museum in 2018.
Find vintage Tecno chairs, tables, desks and other furniture on 1stDibs.
Osvaldo Borsani pair of LT8 ceiling-to-floor neon lamps by Tecno, Italy, 1950s
By Tecno, Osvaldo Borsani
Located in Chiavari, Liguria
Pair of ceiling-to-floor neon lamps in painted metal and brass, model It8, manufactured by Tecno and designed by Osvaldo Borsani, 1950s. These lamps connect ceiling and floor with a...
Metal, Brass
Rare Model LT8 Floor Lamp by Osvaldo Borsani
By Tecno, Osvaldo Borsani
Located in Rovereta, Repubblica di San Marino
Model LT8 floor lamp by Osvaldo Borsani. Designed and manufactured in Italy, circa 1950s. Enameled metal, brass. Original European cord We recommend two Neon Fluorescent tubes. Bulbs...
Aluminum
20th Century Osvaldo Borsani for Tecno LT8 Sky-Ground Lamp 1960 Brass and Neon
By Tecno, Osvaldo Borsani
Located in Turin, Turin
Osvaldo Borsani in 1953, together with his brother Fulgenzio, realized his most complex project: a company idea named after the "techne" of the Greeks, which means both art and technique. Tecno thinking was born: the perfect synthesis between the artisan experience of the atelier and its declination on a larger scale. Tecno is first and foremost an entrepreneur's project: Italy has begun its process of tertiarization; the office environment does not yet have its unquestionable formal definition, and that is where Osvaldo Borsani wants to get to: to reinvent for workspaces that mix of formal elegance, rigor and rational functionality that the modern movement had developed for domestic living. Here the very wonderful sky-ground lamp...
Brass, Metal
20th Century Boule Floor Lamp Max Bill Style, 1960s
By Max Bill
Located in Paris, FR
A 1960s vintage floor lamp in the style of Swedish designer Max Bill's iconic design. This piece is built with 10 atomic style boule opal glas...
Steel
Scandinavian modern floor lamp, rare model, 1940s
Located in Eskilstuna, SE
Beautiful Swedish modern floor lamp made in the middle of the 20th century. Modernistic design with steel and Great wood details.
Beech, Walnut
Pair of Delord & Garrault Floor to Ceiling Lamps
By Garrault-Delord
Located in Saint-Ouen, IDF
Pair of rare "Sol au plafond" (floor to ceiling) lamps, made of different section of metal tubes holding an enlightnen plexi globe. Adjustable height ...
Metal, Chrome
Floor lamp attributed to Osvaldo Borsani
By Guglielmo Ulrich, Arredamenti Borsani, Gio Ponti, Osvaldo Borsani, Gino Sarfatti
Located in Lugo, IT
Floor lamp attributed to Osvaldo Borsani. Dual ignition Good Condition Thank you
Brass
1950s Italian Articulating Floor Lamp Attributed to Arredoluce
By Arredoluce
Located in Glendale, CA
1950s Italian Articulating Floor Lamp Attributed to Arredoluce An exceptional piece of 1950s lighting design executed in chromed steel that sits on a white marble base with black le...
Marble, Metal, Chrome
Rare Model 14.958 Floor Lamp by Rispal
By Rispal
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Rare Model 14.958 Floor Lamp by Rispal. Designed and manufactured in France, circa 1950s. Rare sculptural floor lamp with slender custom wood stem, interloc...
Metal, Steel, Stainless Steel
Rare Floor Lamp, Model 325 by Vilhelm Wohlert, 1957s
By Vilhelm Wohlert
Located in Limhamn, Skåne län
This rare floor lamp, model 325, designed by Vilhelm Wohlert and produced by Le Klint in Denmark in 1957, is a remarkable example of Scandinavian modern design. The lamp combines tea...
Metal, Brass
$1,880Sale Price|20% Off
H 90.55 in W 5 in D 4.68 in
LT8 Floor to Ceiling Lamp by Astep in White and Brass
By Astep, Osvaldo Borsani
Located in Rhinebeck, NY
LT8 / Floor Lamp by Osvaldo Borsani LT8 was conceived in 1954 for Borsani’s new bourn company Tecno, that would come to revolutionize the world of contract furniture, and presented...
Brass, Aluminum
$8,595
H 66.93 in W 16.15 in D 29.53 in
Rare Italian Floor Lamp, model. 348, c. 1950 by Giuseppe Ostuni
By Giuseppe Ostuni
Located in London, GB
A rare floor lamp, model no. 348, by Angelo and Giuseppe Ostuni for Oluce. The bold scale and wonderfully balanced cantilver are signatures of Ostuni's design, finely engineered in ...
Aluminum, Brass
Sfumato' LT 316 floor lamp by Carlo Nason for Mazzega, 1970s
By Carlo Nason
Located in Oirlo, LI
Carlo Nason, born into one of Murano's oldest glass families, developed a unique approach to lighting design, shaped by both tradition and innovation. Known for his experiments with ...
Murano Glass
$12,605
H 53.15 in Dm 12.6 in
Sfumato Glass Floor Lamp Model "LT316" by Carlo Nason for Vetrerie Nason, 1960s
By Carlo Nason
Located in Brescia, Brescia
An iconic example of late-20th-century Murano glass design, this sculptural floor lamp model LT316 was designed by Carlo Nason for Mazzega/Vetrerie Nason and embodies the poetic bala...
Metal, Brass
$3,575Sale Price|44% Off
H 47.5 in W 16.5 in D 16.25 in
Carlo Nason, A. V. Mazzega, LT 220 Floor Lamp, Glass, Chrome
By AVMazzega, Carlo Nason
Located in New York, NY
Carlo Nason, A. V. Mazzega, LT 220 Floor Lamp, Glass, Chrome. Large high- quality sculptural floor lamp with two handblown glass diffusers (transparent but a bit opaque opaline) and a chrome plated center cylinder sleeve and base. In good original condition with the period wiring and dual foot switch. Muranese designer Nason, strived to achieve clean, simple, modern forms and cites Japanese design as a major influence on his work. He began his career designing glass vases for his family's business, V. Nason & C., in the mid 1950's. In the following decade, his desire to express himself in a "free way", and his ambition to create a variety of objects for the home, led him to collaborate with Mazzega {A. V. Mazzegaa} to produce handblown lamps...
Chrome