Via Privata Raffaello Morghen, a street in Milan’s formerly industrial Bovisa district, is a short walk from Politecnico di Milano, where Roberto Tarter and Rodolfo Viola met more than 20 years ago studying industrial design. Here, in an old carpentry workshop, the multidisciplinary duo—their practice is fittingly named Morghen Studio—crafts sculptural, collectible lighting, and furniture.
Inspired by Africa’s umbrella trees, Dafne’s brass branches are hand shaped with a blow torch
Tarter and Viola embarked on disparate paths following graduation, but in 2014, they decided to join forces, first spending their weekends and holidays tinkering with prototypes and experimenting with the likes of resin and silicone. Twelve years later, their process is just as fluid and broad-minded. “There is not a fixed way to proceed from the first sketches to production. Every time is different, and we think this freedom is a key to letting ideas and thoughts emerge,” says Tarter.
Inside the studio are many of the tools Viola’s father accumulated for his own sprawling garage workroom of yore equipped for steel and electricity projects. “Looking back, I can say that’s where I moved my first steps in the design world, taking apart objects and trying to fix them—even though not always succeeding—or opening them for the sake of looking inside,” recalls Viola.
Morghen Studio’s pieces, drawn from memory, emotion, myths, and the natural world, are primarily brought to life with brass, sometimes paired with contrasting stone or fabric. “Lighting always went hand-in-hand with brass: It’s soft to shape, it can dissipate heat easily, and it has a nice, warm finish,” says Tarter.
He and Viola learned ancient techniques alongside developing personal ones that “help us to better communicate our language and push our work to a new limit. The way in which we use flames, for example, is one of our features,” adds Viola. Manipulating the brass through fire leads to compellingly organic designs, including Howl’s constellation of blackened tubes.
Other brass works include a playful chandelier of cubes arrayed as pixels and the kinetic Vesper that takes cues from Alexander Calder mobiles. The surface of Dafne, inspired by Africa’s umbrella trees, is intentionally worn down for a raw effect, and Ophelia’s bent loops simultaneously convey fragility and animation. A bespoke version of the latter graces the lobby of the recently opened JW Marriott Reston Station in Virginia, its swooping silhouette complemented by plaster walls.
“There’s nothing quite like creating something with our hands,” says Tarter, and he and Viola relish how the journey straddles classic product design and functional art. As Tarter and Viola move toward large-scale and site-specific installations, they have an opportunity to showcase their technical expertise and “explore more forms of expression,” as Viola puts it, such as melted glass.
“Light allows us to sense the world as we know it. Without it, we would live in eternal darkness. Despite its intangible nature, we address it as if it was a material itself,” says Tarter. “Ultimately, for us, light is a powerful and relative entity that’s able to change the perception of spaces.”
Cascades of Light is a dramatic pendant made from brass and metal
This article originally appeared in HD’s August 2026 issue.