Hans Bergstrom Biography
The Swedish architect-designer Hans Bergström was born in 1910 in Karlshamn. After finishing secondary school in 1927, he worked for several years in the metal manufactory Ystad-Metall in Ystad, where he designed lamps, mirrors, bottles, jugs, and bowls. In 1929 he enrolled at the Konstindustriell Skola (now known as Konstfack) in Stockholm, designing a chandelier for a church (1932) in Iggesund for his graduation project. After graduating in 1933, Bergström returned to Ystad-Metall for a short time, before establishing his own lighting company, ateljé Lyktan, in 1934 in Helsingborg. In 1935, together with his wife Vera he moved the atelier to Åhus, on the south-eastern coast of Sweden. Shortly afterwards, Bergström also founded a showroom in the neighboring city of Kristianstad. Following the philosophy, “Light must be white and must be able to shine freely,” he designs and produces functional and modern lamps, designed to illuminate large spaces. Bergström has been the creative director of ateljé Lyktan for three decades, and, until the beginning of 1960s, the company's sole designer. Many of Bergström's designs are unique, numbered but unnamed. During the 1940s, lamps with protective nets, often enriched with floral or animal motifs, were very popular in Sweden. Like for example the models nr. 3 (1930s) and nr. 5C (1940s) by Bergström in short supply due to the war. With the introduction of plastic in the 1950s, Bergström experiments with new lighting techniques. He develops a new method of spraying plastic threads onto a rotating mesh structure, which will lead to the creation of a patent and spherical lamp no. 166 (1952). A similar technique would later be used by the Castiglioni brothers for their Cocoon Viscontea lamp (1960), the Taraxacum chandeliers (1960), and the Gato table lamps (1960) for Flos. Bergström is best known for his minimalist Model 181 lamp (1950), also known as Struten, which won the gold medal at the 1954 Milan Triennale. This lamp is a favorite of his friend, the Swedish architect-designer Bruno Mathsson (1907-1988), who decorated his home with many of Bergström's designs. Other designs of note by Bergström include the Harlekin series (1958), which includes pendant lamps in different sizes and shapes; the Model 100L (1958), known today as Ofir, inspired by an upside-down ceiling rose, and the Model no. floor lamp. 569 Giraffen (1950s). At the beginning of the 1960s, Bergström retired and Philips' head of design, Anders Pehrson, became responsible for the operations of the ateljé Lyktan in Åhus, directing the company towards mass production and no longer bespoke. Bergström died in Karlshamn in 1996. In 2009, ateljé Lyktan celebrated its 75th anniversary and published the retrospective book Ljuset ska vara vitt och lysa fritt–Historien om ateljé Lyktan by Johan Jansson and Staffan Bengtsson. Some of Bergström's designs are still in production at ateljé Lyktan today - and hundreds of them (since 1934) are cataloged in the ateljé Lyktan archives.
