MADS CAPRANI
Danish lighting designer Mads Caprani’s distinctive and disruptive vision of what a lamp could look like has echoed through the ages. Although he did not initially set out to become a designer, Caprani’s curiosity, ambition, natural talent, and determination to seize any opportunities that came his way, ensured that he was destined to make a permanent mark on the story of 20th-century design.
TIMBERLINE COLLECTION
The Timberline Lamps with its discreet warm glow and carefully selected materials, is ideal for creating inviting, layered ambiences within the home. GUBI’s two Timberline models – floor and table lamp – work together harmoniously, allowing for versatile lighting options to be deployed side by side to match the purpose and mood of the moment, bringing warmth and depth to any setting.
SHADOWS OF WAR
Born in Copenhagen in 1942, Micheli Alessio – aka ‘Mads’– Caprani spent his early childhood in the shadow of war. His father, Alessio Micheli, fought actively in the Resistance, and consequently the family were forced underground, moving from town to town in order to escape detection by the Nazis.
Over the course of World War Two, the Caprani family traveled all over Denmark, spending time in both the north and south of the country, but never settling down for long.
SURROUNDED BY CLASSICS
Caprani's journey into design began after he had left school and begun training as an electrician at the Technical College of Copenhagen, and later, as an electrical engineer.
His technical proficiency saw him hired by the renowned Danish lighting manufacturer Louis Poulsen, where he worked with some of the leading figures in mid-century Danish design, including Arne Jacobsen, Poul Henningsen and Verner Panton. Exposure to such visionaries awakened Caprani’s own interest in design, and thus laid the foundations of what was to become a major global lighting brand.
In 1967, Mads' farther Alessio Micheli Caprani acquired the lamp factory Rotaflex in 1967. Mads Caprani joined the firm 10 years later, determined to make a mark on the international lighting scene, and began producing his own pleated lampshades, which were highly unusual for the time and soon became a hit with his clients.
In 1979, Mads Caprani took over the company from his father and changed its name to Caprani Light, devoting himself to designing entire lamps, at first focusing on wood, then expanding his practice to explore other natural materials such as metal and stone.
From a small Danish company, Mads turned Caprani Light into a global name, setting up branches across Europe and even in Chicago and Wisconsin in the US. Of all Caprani Light’s products, it was the Timberline Floor Lamp that fulfilled Mads’ ambition and secured his legacy. A unique, sinuous, and striking design somehow both quintessentially 1970s and utterly timeless in its aesthetic, the Timberline Floor Lamp was an instant best-seller, becoming known around the world simply as ‘the Caprani Lamp’.