Custom Luminaires for the New Port Promenade Hamburg
Bringing an outstanding location in Hamburg to life with light: the new port promenade, from the landing bridges to Hamburg‘s Old Warehouse District
The Port of Hamburg has a new promenade in a prominent location – the Inland Port/Lower Port flood protection facility between the landing bridges in St. Pauli and the Old Warehouse District. The promenade’s distinctive architecture stems from the London office of Zaha Hadid and is brought to life at night by light from
a technical solution designed by Schlotfeldt Licht using LED technology by Selux.
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 1st 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.