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Architectural
Lighting
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One of Amsterdam's latest landmarks is its futuristic stadium, the Amsterdam Arena. Home to Holland's famous football club, Ajax, the Arena has also created a number of opportunities for developers. Since its completion in 1996, the surrounding area has fast become a hotspot of urban renewal, with an ever-widening range of restaurants, cafes and hotels, malls, cinemas, and business centers. One such development is Amsterdam's new design emporium, Villa Arena. Conceived as a stylish home furnishings center, the building occupies a vast triangular space with 100,000 square meters of retail space, enough for over 70 designer stores. Designed by Dutch architects Benthem & Crouwel, Villa Arena is one of the new breed of malls that is being forced to address the growing reluctance of shoppers to spend time browsing in stores, and to counter the allure of the cyber mall by offering a degree of entertainment, and a range of ancillary, non-retail facilities. With art showings, workshops, food, events, and even a kindergarten, Villa Arena is devising new ways to entice customers and increase their length of stay. Designed with this multi-functionality in mind, Villa Arena required an attractive lighting design that could match the modern demands for chameleon-like versatility. Lighting designers Hans Wolff & Partners asked local lighting suppliers Fairlight to help find a creative solution, particularly to enhance the interior at night. Having previously had success with the Martin RoboColor Pro 400 on another shopping mall project, the choice was made to use the Pro 400 with a 33-degree lens. Lighting designer Hans Wolff was particularly looking for a light that could fulfil his criteria for durability and serviceability. A key component of the Villa Arena experience is its light, spacious interior. With clear echoes of its stadium neighbor, its four upper floors are arranged around a vast central atrium and dominated by a transparent air-cushion ceiling. The roof is formed by two transparent, air-injected membranes and supported by a light steel structure, an attractive feature but an impractical support for the originally specified downlights. Hans Wolff's solution was to use the 74 RoboColor Pro 400s instead, arranged in two rows on the sidewall. The top row projects light on the ceiling in the evening. "The ceiling in shopping malls is often neglected. Not in this case," observed Wolff. "With this lighting concept we didn't need the roof to support any fixtures, which freed us to use the giant roof construction as a decorative element instead." A bottom row of fixtures projects downwards to the shops and restaurants below. Using the Martin ProScenium software package, the color changers are programmed to create several subtle moods adapting to the time of day. In addition light sensors allow the ProScenium software to make constant adjustments that ensure that Wolff's lighting scheme is always in tune with the level of ambient lighting. Wolff was careful not to draw focus away from the shops. "It's not a disco. When a color changes it changes only very, very slowly, a relaxed fading from blue to white. The visitor's eye is not distracted by a dazzling lightshow, but after a while he'll realize that something has changed, without knowing exactly what." Intensive use has also been made of the calendar function of the ProScenium software. Special color schemes have been created for Christmas and Easter. The results have been very well received, particularly by the project's financial backers, who aim to use intelligent lighting on similar projects in the future. |
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