Founded in Murano in 1981, Foscarini, whose name derives from an ancient Venetian patrician family, began its activity by producing lighting fixtures for the contractor world: hotels, showrooms, offices and public spaces. Unlike other Murano-based companies, Foscarini combined glassworking techniques with a specific focus on lighting technology, a choice that, in keeping with the best Italian design tradition, led to a product-oriented culture. Striving to move beyond a purely decorative approach to glass or surface treatment, the lamps took on clean, simple forms. In just a few years, the company moved from “made-to-measure” production to mass production, bringing Murano glass into dialogue with contemporary design culture. In 1988, with the acquisition of the company by Urbinati and Vecchiati, Foscarini made a decisive change with new business policies, external designers and successful teamwork. With its search for new technologies and materials, Foscarini has added coloured screen-printed glass, polypropylene, glass fabric, carbon fibre and Kevlar® to its range of blown glass products.
In the 1990s, the company moved to Marcon and continued on its path, where research, innovation and design come together in the design of lighting fixtures.