- Projects
- Humboldt Palais
Humboldt Palais
With the Humboldt Palais on Hegelplatz in Berlin Mitte, the property developer BUWOG has realized a new construction project offering exclusive residential space. The upscale commercial area on the ground floor will house a complex temporary light/space installation until the tenant has moved in.
- Building type
- Culture
- Location
- Europe, Germany, Berlin
- Project time frame
- 2013
- Client
- BUWOG – Meermann GmbH
- Image rights
- Martin C. Welker
Related projects
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Palace of Berlin – Humboldtforum
Project
The lighting design firm Lichtvision was commissioned to develop a concept to illuminate the facades of the Humboldt Forum. The result was an intentional lighting of the facades in terms of intensities of illumination and their distribution.
The lighting design bathes the building in a uniform light. It accentuates the mighty presence of the Royal Palace in the heart of Berlin. The flat evenness of the light without much shadowing places priority on the building's three-dimensionality over its details so that it appears imposing and grand, especially from a distance. The height of the light points is necessary to avoid casting hard shadows and to create a uniform lighting.
The designers' lighting specifications were based on standard luminaires. Their design then needed to be integrated into the light columns that also illuminated the exterior areas. KARDORFF was commissioned with achieving these two tasks by using one type of light column.
First, the positions for the light columns were chosen by Kardorff Ingenieure to ensure that the entrances and views of the palace remained unobstructed. The desired light distribution at the defined positions had to be recalculated for the luminaires that can be used in Selux's LIF light column. The LIF light column was custom designed by Kardorff Ingenieure and has highly complex facade modules which can precisely aim individual LED using many separately adjustable deflective mirrors.
This made it possible to achieve the same lighting effect even with another product and at other positions than Lichtvision had originally designed.
As a result, the illumination of the square and the facade have been integrated into one luminaire.- Building type
- Monument, Culture, Museum, Urban Space, System Development
- Location
- Europe, Germany, Berlin
- Project time frame
- 2018 — 2022
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Alter Wall
Project
The architectural ensemble at Alter Wall 2-32 is composed of five buildings directly next to Hamburg's City Hall. The historically listed block was renovated to house shops, restaurants and high-end office space, including a large interior courtyard. Central importance has been given to the new Bucerius Passage, an arcade with bridge that now serves as a new and important passageway in Hamburg's city center.
We designed special lighting fixtures for this arcade: a pendant luminaire of a hyperboloid construction that is distinguished by interlaced metal bars from which light rings hang. Hidden in these rings are fixed light points that illuminate the floors and ceilings of the passageway and colonnade. The dimensions of the lighting fixtures vary widely depending on their position in order to match the given spatial dimensions.
These large-format light objects create a light motif visible from afar that harks back to the grand historical Alster arcades and gives this special place a festive atmosphere in the evenings.- Building type
- Culture, Office, Museum, Shopping, System Development
- Location
- Europe, Germany, Hamburg
- Project time frame
- 2016 — 2019
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Lumières – Frederick II
Project
A word-light installation for the 300th birthday anniversary of Frederick the Great. Using lasers, the poems of the Prussian king were projected on to the facades of the Humboldt University in Berlin and the Altes Palais. Artistic direction: Gabriele von Kardorff
- Building type
- Culture, System Development, Museum
- Location
- Europe, Germany, Berlin
- Project time frame
- 2012
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UAE Pavilion EXPO 2020
Project
As the host, the UAE's pavilion is one of the main buildings at the EXPO and one of great significance.
The design is inspired by a falcon with upward soaring wings, which are fitted with photovoltaics. During the day they are closed and the solar cells tilt toward the sky and at night they open up and display illuminated inner surfaces.
The entire pavilion is monochrome white and is given structure through light. The free-form ceiling of the vast interior is made legible by the double-curved lines of light and captures the iconographic character of the interior space.
The adjoining rooms are very complex ranging from underground parking garages, VVIP rooms and underground entrances to a tunnel connecting the pavilion directly with the Royal Pavilion. Not only did the lighting designers illuminate the interior spaces, but also the building's exterior, the gardens and all of the adjacent areas. The details for the installation were extraordinarily intricate and the highest priority was placed on the invisibility of the luminaires.
Santiago Calatrava wanted only light and structure without any lighting fixtures whatsoever.- Building type
- Culture
- Location
- Asia, United Arab Emirates, Dubai
- Project time frame
- 2016 — 2021
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Bucerius Artforum
Project
Next to Hamburg's City Hall is a special kind of art museum: The Bucerius Kunst Forum does not have its own collection. It hosts temporary exhibits of loaned artworks and thus requires completely flexible lighting. The museum was advised for many years by Harry Mayer on all aspects involving light. He wished that the special spotlights be retained in the new rooms. So we integrated spots into recessed light channels alongside the luminous ceiling panels. We designed the light channels to have full access to the spotlights so that they can be optimally adjusted. A specially designed extruded aluminum sheath integrates the mounting positions for the luminous ceiling panels making it possible to achieve very fine and precise details. A 3-D spatial analysis has found that it is possible to perfectly illuminate every artform and arrangement.
- Building type
- Museum, Culture
- Location
- Europe, Germany, Hamburg
- Project time frame
- 2020
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