IMM COLOGNE 2020
Take a bow
Midgard’s core focus is on directable lighting. To date, it has been company founder Curt Fischer whose designs defined the company’s wall and table luminaires. Now Stefan Diez and Lina Fischer from the Diez Office are on board, offering a modern take on the firm’s erstwhile revolutionary approach. A fiberglass rod, a cable and two adjustment rings form the basis for AYNO. The rod and thus, by extension, the light head can be bent without joints of any kind and using only the rings, which can be set as required. And the conical lampshade can be swiveled. “We critically explored all the customary components in standard lamps,” Stefan Diez, “and defined the possibilities innate in currently available technology with regard to a holistically conceived luminaire.” In the opinion of David Einsiedler, who, together with Joke Rasch, has roused the company, which was established in 1919, from its decades of slumber, explains that AYNO is “incredibly flexible”. In this way, the directable light delivered by wall and table luminaires that illuminate workstations so brilliantly has now been given an emphatic modern facelift. The few component parts can be assembled easily and without tools.
In the form of AYNO, the Diez Office has come up with a directable luminaire that harmoniously complements Midgard’s existing collection of classics although it goes in a new technological and mechanical direction. AYNO does not bend, it bows with a flourish and thus, even in formal terms, builds bridges between Midgard’s tradition and its future. The way that the luminaire bends so elegantly calls to mind the curved arm of the Midgard TYP 113, the so-called “whip lamp” which so fired the enthusiasm of Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius back in the day. Moreover, technically speaking the low number of parts offers users the sustainable opportunity to service the luminaire themselves – the neon orange cable track plus LED, transformer and the switch can simply be replaced. Because it is so light AYNO is easy to carry around and can even be attached to difficult surfaces such as dry walls. With AYNO, Midgard has again opted for regional manufacturers – all the components are made in Germany and assembled in Altona, Hamburg, where Midgard is based.
Prototypes of the table luminaires and standard lamps which are almost ready for mass production will be on display at imm cologne 2020, before the entire range, including wall and ceiling luminaire, is presented at Light + Building in March 2020. “Stefan Diez possesses an immense knowledge of technology,” comments David Einsiedler. And adds: “The design was developed from an ideal combination of material and function – this is the kind of thing that Diez Office in Germany is definitely one of the best at.” With “AYNO” the Diez Office is lending dynamism and a touch of wit to the aesthetics of the machine propagated by Midgard, in a manner that is in perfect tune with the present day.
Midgard at imm cologne 2020:
January 13-19, 2020:
Hall 3.1, D-023
Temporary Gallery
Mauritiuswall 35, Cologne
January 13-18, daily from 11 a.m. through 7 p.m.
OPENING EVENT
Monday, January 13 at 8 p.m.
RSVP
