Bauhaus Floor Lamps

Floor lamps are more than just lighting. Already the Bauhaus experts admired the special flexibility and impact of standard lamps as a design element in a room. In contrast to ceiling or wall lamps, they can be easily moved around and plugged in to the nearest power socket, while also offering the possibility of changing how the setting in a room is created. Furthermore, they are ideal as an uplight to illuminate a certain area or as a reading light in a cosy corner. Today they have become popular once more.

DSL 23 - This floor lamp from 1923 clearly illustrates the formative style of the Bauhaus era, although its designer, architect Richard Döcker, never studied or taught at Bauhaus. Here, clear shapes and lines are paired with high functionality and refined details. Although the DSL 23 might look plain and simple, it is an elegant eyecatcher thanks to the almost free-floating suspension of the lamp head. The light ball made of opal glass emits a particularly atmospheric light. The floor lamp thus helps create very effective mood lighting and acts as a brilliant design feature in private space such as living rooms, studies or bedrooms, or equally in prestigious areas of commercial and industrial premises.

BST 23 - In Gyula Pap's last year as a student at Bauhaus in Weimar, he designed a floor lamp for the “Haus am Horn” that was being planned by Georg Muche and the construction department. The outstanding feature of the lamp is its uncon-cealed light source, consisting of the recently invented metallised light bulb. The light rays are directed downwards and make the light source appear dark; they are refracted by a horizontal matt-etched glass pane that makes them seem to float like a luminous layer over the thin nickel-plated metal tube. In 1925, this lamp featured as an example of functional design in Bauhaus book no. 7 “New Works from Bauhaus Workshops”. It was only ever produced as one-off item for the experimental “Haus am Horn” and is unfortunately now missing. Special tools had to be produced, metal parts turned and refined to ensure that the standard lamp corresponded to the design and appearance of the original, right down to the very last detail.

BH 23 - It's not known who designed this sculptural lamp around 1923. Whoever it was, the lamp designer had a weakness for mechanical features, with a counterweight for adjusting the arm. It's also clear that the floor lamp must have originated from the proximity of the Bauhaus community.

The playful shape and sense of mobility recalls both Oskar Schlemmer's figures in the Triadic Ballet as well as the clear, delicate lamp designs by Marianne Brandt. Today the BH 23 sets an artistic accent in sophistically designed rooms.