Pendant lamp HMB 25/500

nickelcoppercontemporary

Marianne Brandt designed various lamps with Hans Przyrembel. This must have been music to the ears of Walter Gropius, because lamps could be exploited economically to raise much-needed funds for the Bauhaus School. The artists made the lamps at their own workshop, and they were then used at the Bauhaus workshops. One particular example is the hanging lamp known today as HMB 25/300, the height of which can be adjusted using a pendulum and counterweight. Its hemispherical shade is a clear reflection of Marianne Brandt’s signature style. TECNOLUMEN reproduced the hanging lamps by consulting catalogues containing the exact dimensions and by studying two old models, one of which belonged to the Bauhaus Archive in Berlin. Our studies revealed that various materials and fittings were used with different dimensions. For example, the lampshade was made of aluminium, nickel silver or nickel-plated copper sheet. We went with the nickel-plated version, because non-anodised aluminium quickly loses its appeal and nickel silver (alpacca) is hardly manufactured anymore. Some of the lamps had a flanged lower edge to give the shade greater stability, because the material wasn’t very thick.