For his ‘Gambosa’ table lamp for Spanish brand Marset, Mathias Hahn played with balance, geometry and colour. Made of three steel components, the lamp’s base, stem and shade seem to float effortlessly on top of each other, the warm glow of the light source gently bouncing off their emboldened silhouettes.
The lamp is conceived as a system, its elements combining to form a lighting object that reflects a user's or space's identity. The lamp shade comes in opaque pale pink or black, providing direct light, or in opal methacrylate for a softer, diffused glow. The stem is available in orange and moss grey, while the base comes in a stone-grey finish.
Despite creating lamps based on a rigorous technical lighting principle, Marset is known for not shying away from colour, and the 'Gambosa' is a perfect interpretation of how bold hues can be combined with sophistication into a modern design gesture.
For Marset, colour is also a way to explore new production ideas, as in the case of its popular 'Dipping' lamp. Based on a glass sphere featuring colour bands, it results from experimenting with repeatedly dipping a lit light bulb into paint.
Meanwhile, the work of Hahn, a London-based German designer, is defined by an interplay of curved lines and a minimalist aesthetic. His forms are studied to complement the human body, in the case of furniture, or to create a harmonious experience, in the case of objects. A strong focus of his practice is longevity, with objects conceived with the idea of being easily disassembled and their parts disposed of.
This is also true for the ‘Gambosa’: Hahn chose universally available sockets, allowing users to select and easily replace their preferred light source, and the electric cable is attached to the top rather than base, so that the lamp can be easily disassembled, packaged and repaired.
