Design of the Month: April Spotlight

Pavol Košťan, lampshades made of sintered granulate, VD Pokrok Žilina, 1960-1980 The Pokrok Žilina production cooperative entered the history of Slovak design mainly thanks to its residential lamps, although from the beginning the production program also included lamps for rail vehicles, metal furniture, medical equipment and the children’s Elektronik building kit. The head of the company’s development department was Pavol Košťan, a constructor and designer of several shape variations of lamps made of sintered plastic granulate, called krasten. This material emerged as a solution to the problem of supplying glass lampshades from mainly Czech manufacturers.

In the late 1960s, Pokrok Žilina began producing sintered granulate, from which they shaped unbreakable, lightweight geometric lampshades with a timeless design, which were harmoniously combined with the wooden or metal structure of the lamps. The lampshades, as well as their structures, were produced in various shape and color variations such as a sphere, a cuboid, or in the shape of a cylinder, for example Type 06 – 03/1.

In VD Pokrok Žilina, the production of lampshades was significantly reduced since 1989, and since 1997 the company’s orientation turned to heating technology. In 2022, VD Pokrok Žilina ceased to exist completely.

The collections of the Museum of Design include several table lamps Type 06-03/1 and Type 06-04 or Type 06 – 07, which you can view from April 23 to April 27, 2025 at the Design Forum 2025 exhibition in the Agrokomplex National Exhibition Center in Nitra.