This new edition revisits Alexander Koch’s influential 1953 study Neuzeitliche Leuchten, a key early survey of modern lighting design.

Koch’s original selection of international fixtures and manufacturers now appears remarkably forward-looking, anticipating many developments that would shape postwar design culture.

The publication documents a wide spectrum of mid-century lighting, demonstrating how design evolved beyond the geometric reduction of the prewar avant-garde toward more expressive, nationally inflected approaches. After the Second World War, influences from the United States, Scandinavia and Italy increasingly complemented—and at times challenged—the Bauhaus-derived functionalism that had previously dominated German design discourse.

As in contemporary architecture, one may speak of an emerging “international style” in lighting design. While streamlined forms and dynamic linear structures gained prominence across national contexts, the sculptural presence of the luminaire itself and its atmospheric impact on space remained central design concerns. A dedicated chapter examines the spatial and scenographic role of modern lighting, illustrated through interiors by figures such as Richard Neutra and Walter Gropius.

More than 250 original images document design trends from leading manufacturers in America, Scandinavia, Germany and Italy, alongside examples by prominent artists, architects and designers as well as lesser-known but historically significant works. This carefully produced reissue restores an almost unavailable original publication and remains an essential reference for collectors, design historians and specialists in twentieth-century lighting design.