A museum in a former depot. We illuminated the exhibit with only two light channels. Recessed luminaires light the ceilings and show off the cross vaults. Spotlights set the scene for the exhibited objects. As a result of the close cooperation with the exhibit's designer, Prof. Detlef Saalfeld, it was possible to design a top-quality exhibit on a low budget.

The facade has 450 DMX-controlled lighting fixtures that offer endless possibilities for setting the scene. Additional spotlights have been positioned in the landscape in invisible niches to illuminate the dark areas of the facade. For special events, there are places to position temporary projectors which can be easily integrated into the control system. The lighting in the museum and its shop is designed to optimally present the writing implements, given their small formats.

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.

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.

Liljevalchs+ in Stockholm (architect: Wingårdhs) is the extension on the renowned Liljevalchs Museum for Contemporary Art.
The interplay between daylight and artificial light with the pronounced roofline design posed a particular challenge. The 170-square-meter roof sits atop the building above the two large exhibit halls like a crown with its 166 exposed concrete skylights.
The aim of our lighting design was to achieve the required high flexibility to light the exhibits while, depending on angle and position in the room, concealing the busbars and spotlights. Due to the skylights' height and geometry, direct sunlight is blocked out in the exhibit halls when the sun is low. We intensively analyzed the positions of the luminaires using simulations and 1:1 model tests (see graphics), so as not to disturb the clarity of the skylights' form.
In the absence of daylight, the exhibit halls are lit flexibly using spots on busbars and in the more level rooms using an additional linear lighting system that sits parallel to the walls. In the café and museum shop, backlit cloth panels hang under the ceiling.
Liljevalchs+ is the culmination of a holistic approach and close collaboration between all participants, in which every aspect concerning light in its complex relationship to architecture could be addressed.

With the motto: „Nationalmuseum in a New Light“, the Swedish National Museum reopened its doors in October 2018 after an extensive renovation. The museum, originally built by August Stüler, has been a landmark in Sweden since its opening in 1866 and is the largest art museum in the Nordic region. The combination of daylight and artificial light interfering with the historically inspired colour concept for the interior walls provides a unique museum experience.

The exhibit of the automobile icons has been updated. We used color-changing luminaires that have been calibrated to each automotive paint and its color. As a result, the icons gleam even more impressively.

Reopening following
general refurbishment of one of the largest museums in Germany. Drawing on state-of-the-art LED technology, the exhibit lighting highlights the diversity of this historic and universal museum by Alfred Messel.

The art gallery in the Deutsche Bank’s Berlin headquarters is an established platform for international contemporary art. Kardorff Ingenieure Lichtplanung designed the new KunstHalle entrance, which with its walls of LED light is visible from far away.

The 2015 German Prize for Lighting Design in the category Museum was awarded to Kardorff Ingenieure Lichtplanung.
This private museum for architectural drawing located in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg not only displays the collection of the Tchoban Foundation, but also the collections of internationally leading cultural institutions.

Since May 2013, the Wiesbaden Museum has displayed its collection of old masters in the remodeled and newly organized south wing. The lighting concept designed by us for the exhibit has been implemented, including the illumination of the individual exhibits.

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

The innovative lighting concept with LED technology was newly designed and implemented for the foyer and two wings of the museum in Düsseldorf. The glass mosaic window by J.T. Prikker in the foyer has been lit from outside with a projection technique
using glass filters. Regardless of the sunlight, the window can display its special effect.

Within the scope of the architectural biennale, the participants in the first Audi Urban Future Awards in 2010 were exhibited in the Scuola Grande della Misericordia in Venice.

An innovative lighting concept was developed for the ZeitHaus in this car-manufacturing city. Mirrored ceilings allow for new angles of perspective for viewing the exhibits and also make the vehicles visible from the outside. LED lamps provide for an optimal and bright illumination of the vehicles. Their placement creates a uniform pattern of light.

Another milestone for our team: the lighting of a world heritage site and a large, internationally famous collection. In 2009, after ten years of intensive planning, we were able to handover the realized lighting concept in the restored Neues Museum. The discreet light atmosphere and the soft, yet precise
illumination of the objects – particularly Nefertiti – are highly admired by museum specialists and visitors. For the overall architecture, David Chipperfield received the 2011 German Architecture Prize, among other recognitions.
 

The old fortress structure is a modern center for culture and administration with the museum for medieval church and cultural history in Brandenburg, the chapel, the Bergfried tower, the local historical museum, the tourist information, the library, and the Ziesar government office.

In 2004 the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte was restored and completely rearranged. We designed the lighting for the areas open to the public, including the vitrine lighting.

The lighting was adapted for a sculpture exhibit in the hall of the Gemäldegalerie.  The light fixture designed by Christoph Sattler and Thomas Albrecht was completed by us in terms of lighting technology. Targeted illumination of the sculptures made the desired three-dimensional presentation of the individual exhibits possible.

The Volkswagen pavilion is located in the car-manufacturing center, Wolfsburg. The truncated VW logo radiates light from blue neon tubes out into the interior.

The sculpture by Frank Stella was examined using extensive light tests while still in storage at the art dealer’s in order to determine its range of effects. The empirically established light positions were geometrically transferred to the foyer and the lighting fixtures installed before the piece of art was mounted.

In 1997, a daylight and artificial lighting concept was developed for all the rooms with skylights in the Pergamon Museum. For the first time, a computer simulation of the daylight, including even the falling of shadows on the exhibits, was conducted.