It isn’t hard to guess which era this company dates back to – the experiment-happy and sometimes playful 1980s. The multiaward- winning series Zoom, the brainchild of Floyd Paxton, with lamps that can be pulled apart like an accordion and then pushed together again, tempts anyone who sees them to have a go. Whether large or small cylinders, compact table lamp or stately chandelier, the diameter can be altered between 20 and 130, respectively 40 and 260 centimetres, which of course results in completely different light effects. Uwe Fischer’s hanging lamp Take Five is similarly variable. Lamp manufacturer Serien has made a name for itself by offering original, wellthought- out designs. One of the more recent products is Poppy (by Ulrich Beckert, Georg Soanca-Pollack and Peter Thammer), a flowerlike shape made up of several stems and calyxes that open when the lamp is switched on. Wall and ceiling lamp have 15 a rms, the chandelier even double that amount. The “leaves” of the lamp shades are made of a bi-metal that expands when heated, resulting in a surprising “blooming” effect. The lampshades are of hand-blown glass whose transparency only becomes evident when the lamp is turned on. Another innovation is the unusual Propeller ceiling fan (by Yaacov Kaufmann). Just one glance is enough to confirm that this fan is utterly unlike the others and, what’s more, it also functions as a lamp. The advantage is a beautiful closed form without the usual blades – an object that does not reveal its identity as machine. Some Serien products started out on the drawing boards of company founders Jean-Marc da Costa and Manfred Wolf, for example the Basis uplight, an aluminium construction that impresses with its clean lines, delicate dimensions and effective lighting performance. Even more minimalistic is the SML series, a flat rectangle as wall or ceiling uplight and downlight. The name reveals its special feature: both versions come in sizes S, M and L.