The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2025–2026
Martinelli Luce's Grammoluce: glass spheres dim the lamp — iF Gold 2026
Dim a table lamp by adding glass spheres to a Lycra membrane: weight becomes the control — iF Design Award 2026 Gold.
Martinelli Luce S.p.A.
What it had to solve
Italian lighting maker Martinelli Luce set out with designer Min Dong to create a lamp with a sensory, physical relationship to light — no knob, no remote, just the object itself.
How it works
Grammoluce is a table lamp whose dimmer is not a switch but physics. Designed by Min Dong of Studio Habits for Martinelli Luce, it uses a Lycra membrane stretched over a glass and aluminium structure: users place one to three borosilicate glass spheres — weighing 0.3, 0.7 or 1.3 kg — on the fabric, and their number and weight set the intensity and hue of a dynamic-white LED. Light spheres produce delicate, warm light; adding heavier spheres makes it stronger and colder.
The idea reframes the interaction with light as a tactile dialogue between form, weight and glow. The membrane visibly reshapes under each sphere, so every adjustment is a small physical event rather than an abstract control. Even the materials reinforce the concept: the base is PaperStone, an FSC-certified composite of recycled paper and plant-based resins, so the lamp's sustainability matches its hands-on philosophy.
The 2025 table lamp received the highest distinction of the iF Design Award 2026 — the only Gold awarded to an Italian company in the lighting category that year — and Martinelli Luce celebrated it by presenting the 'weighed light' in its Lucca showroom.
Why it lands
- It replaces an abstract control (knob, remote, app) with a physical one, so the user feels the cause of every change in light.
- The interaction is self-explanatory: no manual needed, the spheres invite experimentation by their very presence.
- A functional mechanism doubles as the aesthetic centrepiece, turning a utility object into a piece of sculpture.
- Sustainability is embedded in the design (recycled-paper base, long-life LED) rather than bolted on as a claim.
What it did
Won the iF Design Award 2026 Gold, the only Gold given to an Italian company in the lighting category, plus the ArchiProducts Design Award 2025; the maker presented the 'weighed light' lamp at its Lucca showroom.
What you can take
A familiar object's control can be redesigned as a physical, sensory interaction; making the interface itself beautiful turns a commodity into a covetable object.
Since then
Grammoluce joined Martinelli Luce's catalogue and the iF Gold was presented at the award ceremony in Berlin in 2026. The company used the win to underline its commitment to design research, and Emiliana Martinelli announced the lamp would be shown in the Lucca showroom — a small Italian lighting maker proving that a single strong concept can compete on the world's most selective design stage.
Sources
- Grammoluce 838 Table — product page
- Gold Award 2026 a Martinelli Luce. Sul podio a Berlino con tre creazioni
- 2026 iF Design Award Gold — lighting winners
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