The International Year of Glass
The glass, an eclectic material
On the verge of the fiftieth anniversy of FIAM Italia’s activity, based on Vittorio Livi’s brilliant intuition to reinterpret glass as an eclectic material, the General Council of the United Nations has decreed the year 2022 as the International Year of Glass (YIOG).
This initiative is a further confirmation of FIAM’s vision of glass: a liquid but also solid material, transparent and simultaneously opaque, bendable, flexible and resistant, as well as reconvertible and sustainable, ancient and innovative at the same time. Glass is able to reflect an environment and determine its atmosphere, glass a multiplier of light, a protagonist even when combined with other essences and surfaces.
International Year of Glass: the initiative
As reported on the official website of the event, glass has played – and will always play – an essential role in the development of society and has facilitated many cultural and scientific advances. Many of the latest findings, such as the optical fibers that have revolutionized global communications, the sheets of solar cells that allow clean energy to be produced and also the thermal insulators that improve the houses energy efficiency are made of glass indeed. Glass is a sustainable material, infinitely recyclable and reusable. In Italy, this material recirculation reached a 79% value in 2020, exceeding the targets set by the European Union.
Glass is definitely the green material par excellence. The International Year of Glass also celebrates this material from an artistic point of view, featuring many artists all over the world who have shown an renewed awareness of its intrinsic values through extraordinary artworks, enhancing all the beauty of glass, as well as its ability to capture and display the full spectrum of natural colors. One of the objectives of this initiative by the United Nations is to organize festivals, workshops and other events to communicate the rich history of glass, highlighting its relations with culture in general.
FIAM: almost 50 years of passion for glass
FIAM Italia has always felt engaged in the promotion of all the beauty of glass since 1973, when our founder Vittorio Livi decided to make glass become a protagonist of the world of design with his first product, the Onda pouf. For almost 50 years we have been manufacturing bent glass furniture, and our passion and expertise are now world-renowned. Some of the products designed by Vittorio Livi himself, or in collaboration with famous international designers, are recognized as design icons being nowadays displayed in 25 museums all over the world. Just think about our Ghost armchair, our Caadre mirror or our Atlas table, which are clear examples of this.
For almost 50 years we have been manufacturing bent glass furniture, and our passion and expertise are now world-renowned.
A special mention should be also given to Spazio Miralfiore, the only museum in the world exclusively dedicated to curved glass, opened by our founder in 1992 in the magical Villa Miralfiore. FIAM Italia commitment to design led Vittorio Livi to numerous awards over the years, such as the the ADI Compasso d’Oro and the Leonardo Qualità Italia Award in 2015. The International Year of Glass represents a unique opportunity to promote this material, ancient in the deepest sense of the word, but always up-to-date, as demonstrated by FIAM Italia with its ever innovative range of furniture, always in line with the trends of the moment. Passion, design, research, associated with the “culture of glass”, are the core principles of our company mission, that is why knowing that the United Nations recognizes glass as a fundamental element for society, pushes us towards the future with renewed enthusiasm.