Some time back I profiled Dutch designer Pieke Bergmans and her avant garde take on design-in-process that she called Crystal Virus. The concept/piece showed at Design Miami in 2008. Nearly three years later, the notion gets an updated treatment courtesy of Germany’s Hanna Krüger. Like Crystal Virus, Krüger’s Add.On Lamp integrates the living, breathing wildcard of hand-blown glass onto an accessory material.

Add.On Lamp. Designed and Manufactured by Hanna Krüger.

Hanna Krüger’s Add.On Lamp Features Intuitive Assembly

The quite palpable difference between the two, however, is in the pieces’ ultimate functionality. While Bergmans’ blown glass pieces made for exquisite decorative items, Krüger’s blown glass shades are the crowning achievement of a very functional (and surprisingly portable) standing lamp.

The concept is brilliant for its simplicity. The designer simply blows her customized glass sconces directly onto three wooden legs arranged in a tripod configuration. As the shade hardens, it fuses the elements in place, thus creating a stable foundation for the capstone of the beautiful blown glass.

After the glass hardens, all that’s needed to give this lamp life is a small aluminum tube (inserted into the junction of the legs) and accompanying power cord. This intuitive mode of assembly not only eliminates the “middle men” of bolts, fasteners, glues, etc…, it also creates a piece that disassembles with the ease of a child’s toy.

Those are perks enough—especially in an age of increased mobility and the growing need for efficient use of space—but the crowning achievement of Add.On is its crowning achievement—the beautiful custom hand-blown glass lampshade: customized for your delight and different every time.

About the Designer: Born in Berlin, designer Hanna Krüger studied product design at the University of Arts Kassel between 2005 and 2011. She has shown her work in contests and exhibitions throughout Germany, including IMM Cologne and Surrogate Cities in Berlin. Known for her surpassing interest in the spontaneity of the design process, Krüger continually explores the intersection of process and product: “One important theme in my work is the moment of production, in which the material, human, production methods, and cultural context are converging.”