Funivia lighting design system by Carlotta de Bevilacqua for Artemide

Carlotta de Bevilacqua’s ‘Funivia’ lighting design shines with a mountaineering spirit

Artemide launches FUNIVIA, a scalable and flexible lighting design inspired by cable cars. Energy runs through cables that can be arranged both vertically and horizontally, crisscrossing each others. Light sources hang from the cables allowing to create infinite lighting solutions going far beyond the limits dictated by the rigidity of systems.

FUNIVIA by Carlotta de Bevilacqua for Artemide - Courtesy of ©Artemide.

FUNIVIA by Carlotta de Bevilacqua for Artemide – All photos: courtesy of ©Artemide.

Design – “FUNIVIA – ‘cable car’ in Italian – is a functional network of tangible and intangible relations that is free and inclusive and can evolve through the cooperation of its elements.” Explain at Italian lighting design brand Artemide. Designed by Italian architect Carlotta de Bevilacqua, the smart and minimal solution was launched during the 2021 Milano Design City week.

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A rope, the cable that supplies the energy and the nails, the elements used to fix within space, form the design basis. Thanks to a special minimum section that can withstand mechanical tension and thermal stress, the cable is the channel that distributes the system’s energy and the key element to which the lighting elements connect.

The cable runs uninterruptedly through space. Indeed, it can be fixed separately, to the floor or ceiling, using mechanical elements. It runs within, without needing to be cut and therefore interrupted, forming a network of regular horizontal or vertical, as well as freely inclined, lines in the space.

It can run infinitely from a single power point, with the only limit being the power installed on its length. In the flexibility and freedom, “interferences” can be generated between two systems that touch each other, crisscrossing in a connection that enables two cables to pass through.

“Funivia is not bound to an electricity grid or a predefined project; it can enter any space at any time and design light with the utmost freedom.” The result is a structure that can integrate light, intelligence, spatial partitions and panels with acoustic properties, to mention just a few. The light elements are connected to the cable via a ‘bridge’ element, a sort of electrical connection that mechanically fixes the appliance and takes the energy from the cable to power it.

By integrating sensors, Funivia can also open up to parametric environmental interaction. In this digital network too, each appliance has its own identity, its own IP address through which it can be managed with Dali systems or by the Artemide App.

Funivia is also sustainable on a production level, in distribution, installation, consumption, use and the integration of existing elements, without necessarily having to create additional new products.