Selux

Custom Luminaires for the New Port Promenade Hamburg

The flood­wa­ter pro­tec­tion faci­li­ties in the Port of Ham­burg are gra­dually
being renewed, crea­ting urban plan­ning oppor­tu­ni­ties in defi­ning
loca­tions for the urban land­scape – like at the flood­wa­ter pro­tec­tion
faci­lity for Hamburg’s Inland Port /​Lower Port. Here one of the Port of
Hamburg‘s most impor­tant pro­me­na­des forms a con­nec­tion bet­ween
the lan­ding brid­ges in St. Pauli and the histo­ri­cal port buil­dings of the
Old Ware­house District, which were recen­tly inclu­ded on UNESCO‘s list
of world heri­tage sites. The buil­ding sec­tion starts at ​„Baum­wall“ in the
direct vici­nity of the Elbe Phi­lhar­mo­nic Hall.

Ten­ders were invi­ted to meet spe­cial urban plan­ning requi­re­ments and
the award-win­ning design was sub­mit­ted by the London office of the
reno­w­ned Zaha Hadid Archi­tects. The extraor­di­nary archi­tec­ture of
the stair­ca­ses shown in the design, each con­nec­ted to the pro­me­nade
in vary­ing dimen­sions, ensu­res a high qua­lity visi­tor expe­rience and
aesthe­tic appeal. To enable the lighting effect and light mood to
effec­ti­vely com­pli­ment such archi­tec­tu­ral sophi­sti­ca­tion, Schlot­feldt Licht
pro­po­sed a lighting solu­tion that was not based on stan­dard lumi­nai­res.

The light plan­ning for the flood­wa­ter pro­tec­tion faci­lity with its
pro­me­nade and stair­ca­ses is clearly subor­di­na­ted to the strict­ness of the
archi­tec­ture. The stair­ca­ses, whose appea­rance is inspi­red by wash-outs
in the sand, are empha­si­sed by direct light, while the upper pro­me­nade
is lit using reser­ved light. In order to rea­lise the lighting con­cept, light
plan­ners worked clo­sely with all invol­ved par­ties, the custo­mer LSBG, BSU,
Vat­ten­fall (now Ham­burg Ver­kehr­san­la­gen) and Selux. ​„The tech­ni­cal
sup­port we recei­ved from Selux was a defi­ning factor in the suc­ces­sful
com­ple­tion of this extraor­di­nary pro­ject,“ explai­ned Volker Auge­ner from
LSBG.

Based on the spe­ci­fi­ca­tions in the design by Schlot­feldt Licht, Selux
deve­lo­ped a pro­ject-spe­ci­fic LED pole lumi­naire. Poles are moun­ted at
inter­vals of bet­ween 18 and 40m at heights of 6.5 m or 8.5m, with each
pole assi­gned to a stair­case, to which it is tilted at an incline of around
15°. All poles for a single stair­case system have a uni­form height and each
pole bears six pivo­ting LED lumi­naire heads, three with bat­wing light
distri­bu­tion and three with flood optics, ena­bling various areas, shapes
and distan­ces to be illu­mi­na­ted dif­fe­ren­tly. Each LED lumi­naire head is
equip­ped with its own, DALI-capa­ble driver, ena­bling a wide variety of
light scenes to be pro­gram­med via the rele­vant con­trol­ler.

The highly com­pact lumi­naire heads are reces­sed into depres­sions in the
poles, which are tape­red orga­ni­cally towards the top end; their sur­face
cor­re­spon­ding in colour with the dark ground below. The design lan­guage
for the light poles is based on mari­time asso­cia­tions such as ships‘ masts,
cranes or the stalks of reeds.

The way in which the stair­ca­ses inter­sect alter­na­tely in the pro­me­nade
calls to mind small amphi­thea­tres. ​„Uni­form illu­mi­na­tion would have
resul­ted in a sta­dium effect, which we wanted to avoid in the inte­rest of
crea­ting a high qua­lity visi­tor expe­rience,“ explai­ned Light Plan­ner Tom
Schlot­feldt. For this reason the light poles were arran­ged so that they
create both bright and darker zones. The pole lumi­nai­res have already
been instal­led in the first sec­tion ​“Baum­wall” and the lumi­naire heads
pro­vi­sio­nally ali­gned.

„The feed­back so far both from resi­dents of Ham­burg and tou­rists has
been over­whel­min­gly posi­tive. With its sea­ting areas, the pro­me­nade
has been accep­ted as a key new visi­tor attrac­tion, to an extent that
(accor­ding to ini­tial esti­ma­tions) is even beyond the scope of our
expec­ta­tions,“ reports Tom Schlot­feldt. This is doub­tless also due to the
light mood and the high qua­lity tech­ni­cal rea­li­sa­tion of the pro­ject, the
result of which pro­ject par­ti­ci­pants are most cer­tainly highly sati­sfied
with.

Pro­ject par­ti­ci­pants:
Con­struc­tor: LSBG (Lan­de­sbe­trieb Straßen, Brüc­ken und Gewäs­ser), Ham­burg
Archi­tec­ture: Zaha Hadid Archi­tects, London; Jan Hübe­ner, Studio H2K, Ham­burg (until 2014 asso­ciate at Zaha Hadid Archi­tects, Ham­burg office)
Light plan­ning: Schlot­feldt Licht, Ham­burg
Other par­ti­ci­pants: BSU (former autho­rity for urban deve­lo­p­ment and the envi­ron­ment, since 1^st July 2015 split into the autho­rity for urban deve­lo­p­ment and living/​BSW and the autho­rity for envi­ron­ment and energy/​BUE), Ham­burg Verkehrsanlagen/​HHVA
Pro­ducts: Selux LED light stele ​„Ham­burg Lower Har­bour“ with 6 LED lumi­naire heads, 16W/3000K each, DALI con­trol devi­ces

Novem­ber 2015

About Selux

The Selux Group is a lea­ding pro­vi­der of sustai­na­ble lighting solu­tions
for both inte­rior and exte­rior appli­ca­tions. By acting sustai­na­bly, Selux
is able to main­tain high stan­dards when it comes to energy effi­ciency,
ergo­no­mics and pro­duct design. Foun­ded in Berlin in 1948, Selux is a
global com­pany which is ope­ra­tio­nal in Europe, North Ame­rica and
Austra­lia, employ­ing 565 staff. In 2014 the Selux Group con­ti­nued its
steady suc­cess course in increa­sing its tur­no­ver by 8.9 % to 95 mil­lion
euros. Much of this growth was due to its USA plant (+ 31.4 %) and
Ger­many (+ 11.5 %).

At pre­sent, LED lighting is respon­si­ble for more than 50% of the Selux
tur­no­ver, with this figure fore­cast to rise to 70% by the end of 2016,
the­reby pre­pa­ring the way for a full chan­geo­ver to digi­tal lighting in the
near future. LED light ena­bles addi­tio­nal energy savings due to intel­li­gent
con­trol systems and it is in this area that Selux will be focus­sing its
deve­lo­p­ment efforts in future. Some exam­ples of well-known pro­jects
that Selux has been invol­ved with in the past include the ​„Park am
Glei­sdreieck in Berlin, the Por­sche Museum in Stutt­gart, the Vieux-Port in
Mar­seille and the ⁹⁄₁₁ Memo­rial in NYC.