The Top Industrial Bauhaus Design Made By The Simple Wilhelm Wagenfeld
When it comes to the applied art of industrial design, perhaps no other name rings a bell louder than that of Wagenfeld . Regarded to be the most unbeaten prodigy of the Staatliches Bauhaus, the German industrial designer Wilhelm Wagenfeld created some of the most renowned regard as designs of the 20th century. But none of his designs would prove to be as ageless as the Wagenfeld Lampe. Commonly known as the “Bauhaus lamp”, theWagenfeld Lampe exhibits the modernist ideas which the Bauhaus stands for and remains an accepted industrial style to this day.
Made up of a disc-shaped base, a tube-shaped stand and a semi-spherical glass lampshade, the Wagenfeld Lampe was created by Wagenfeld in cooperation with Karl J. Jucker in 1924 during their journeyman years at the Bauhaus. As the tale goes, the lamp’s style was done by Wagenfeld as the answer to an assignment given to him by his teacher, the Bauhaus administrator Lazlo-Moholy Nagy.
Two variations of the Wagenfeld Lamp currently exist. In the first type, the base and stand are done from industrial class steel covered with nickel. Copy of the Lampe were also made with chrome-plated steel, though nickel-plated lamps are more required after and can certainly be identified by the yellowish glaze of the nickel gives off over time. But the second version, the stand and base are completed from thick clear glass. The internal core of the glass foundation also has a nickel-plated tube which the electrical feed line is housed. The glass type of Wagenfeld Lampe is generally more costly that its steel counterpart, as it is more difficult to manufacture.
Presently, the Technolumen company of Bremen, Germany is the authorized manufacturer of Wagenfeld Lampe reproductions. Technolumen obtained the rights to produce the Lampe from Wagenfeld in the early 1980s, and it now remains as one of its leading products. However, reproductions of Wagenfeld’s style by other manufacturers have also attained on the market.
