Seves Lighting, Seves Special Glass Division

Light Years…. 1905 – 2005: The SEVES Group’s Special Glass Division celebrates its 100th anniversary
One hundred years, a century… Not that long … in historical terms (and glass has a long history). Ever since it was first discovered, way back in ancient times (by the Phoenicians according to many historians), in essence and substance this material has accompanied, supported, inspired and reflected the evolution of mankind. Over the years we have learnt to exploit its remarkable properties – transparency, materialisation of light, as a form of protection, a filter of life, a screen for learning – using it in a broad range of applications.
On the other hand, a hundred years is a long time if we consider how time flies and how we use it, and the developments of the last century.
 
1905: The beginnings… Vetrerie Lodi was founded by the Lodi brothers, whose family originally came from Altare (a traditional glass-making centre on the border between Liguria and Piedmont). At the new glassworks the glass was melted and blown to produce containers and instruments (flasks, test tubes, pipettes, etc.) for chemistry laboratories.
 
In 1920, Vittorio Lodi discovered and developed the formula for “neutral glass” (which had already been discovered in Germany but kept as a closely-guarded secret). The alkali-stable glass with its unalterable composition was ideal for use in the pharmaceutical industry. This “best shot” (a term familiar to those in the glass industry) was the result of years of research and the Turin glassworks quickly became famous throughout Italy as a laboratory capable of developing and implementing solutions for projects on an industrial scale.
 
In 1959 the factory moved to its present site at number 401 in Via Settimo, Turin. In the post-war years it started to use increasingly automated production processes in response to the need for reconstruction and the demands of a rapidly-growing modern society. By now Turin had become the capital of Italy’s automobile industry and Vetrerie Lodi gradually replaced its traditional perfume bottle production lines in order to meet the growing demand for headlamps in pressed glass, lenses, light diffusers and reflectors for household and civil lighting appliances. Light is the word in the glass manufacturing industry and, since we specialise in the lighting design sector, we can even go so far as to say that glass is our “light Motiv”.
 
In 1999 the SEVES Group ((then called VETROARREDO S.p.A), the world’s leading manufacturer of glass blocks and insulators, took over Vetrerie Lodi. From this crucible of the oldest glass-manufacturing traditions it set up the Special Glass Division. Though the name has changed, the Turin glass factory continues to use a continuous industrial moulding process to melt and transform glass, producing the desired forms and colours, capturing the light and creating volume and substance.
2005: The Turin glassworks celebrated its 100th anniversary quietly, in the typical Piedmontese manner, and continues to shed light on all parts of the world Today more than ever before, Glass is our Light motiv.