Foscarini was founded in 1981 on the Italian island of Murano near Venice. Given its location, its early production pieces were logically focused primarily on blown glass. By the late 1980s, Carlo Urbinati and Alessandro Vecchiat (both had previously worked as designers for Foscarini) took over management of the company and expanded its mission to include research and experimentation in a range of materials other than glass – molded polyethelyene, aluminum, polycarbonate, even Kevlar thread and silicon-coated metal. This commitment to innovation through materials has led to successful collaborations with a number of renowned architects and designers over the past few decades including Ferruccio Laviani, Tom Dixon, Aldo Cibic, Piero Lissoni, Marc Sadler, James Irvine, Karim Rashid, Patricia Urquiola, Luca Nichetto, and Valerio Bottin. Foscarini has received numerous, prestigious awards and many of its designs are now in the permanent collections of several museums around the world.