When Stuttgart, Germany–based insurance firm WGV decided to create a company gathering spot—with access to a self-service cafeteria and a space for special events—at its headquarters, the situation provided a couple of unique challenges for lighting consultants Pfarré Lighting Design. The first problem was the site itself, three terrace levels adjacent to a protected historic building known as the Old Guardhouse. Second was a three-tiered ceiling (heights ranging from 12 feet to 13.5 feet) with skylights running in between each step in the elevation and the length of the entire 3,767-square-foot open-seating area.
The lighting designers worked closely with the architects and acousticians to provide a sensitive lighting response, one in which light quality would be the discernible element instead of the fixtures. To accomplish this, they developed a custom 10W 3000K LED-baffle ceiling system that provides a smooth, indirect, ambient lighting solution, despite the difference in ceiling heights across the room. In between the baffles, LED spotlights in square housings provide direct lighting on the tables.
Along the fascia of the center ceiling slab, panels of artwork in shades of red, magenta, and purple wash reflected color into the space. Another series of artwork in shades of blue, magenta, and purple line the lower ceiling slab fascia and add another set of hues to the mix.
Next to the cafeteria and open seating area is the Old Guardhouse. A series of garden terraces and ramped walkways connect old and new, and inground uplights illuminate the trees. The Old Guardhouse serves as a special events meeting space. Here, unlike the main seating area where luminaires are not to be seen, the octahedral form of the custom-designed dimmable fluorescent pendant luminaires in three different sizes is celebrated.
Seemingly simple, but certainly not, this skillful lighting design creates three distinctive, but connected, spaces and celebrates the very essence of light itself.
Jury Comments
The lighting provides a clear diagram of the space.
The uplighting on the ceiling creates a wonderful soft illumination.
Details
Project WGV Casino & Old Guardhouse, Stuttgart
Entrant Pfarré Lighting Design
Owner/Client Württembergische Gemeinde Versicherung (WGV), Stuttgart, Germany
Architect Hascher Jehle Architektur, Berlin
Lighting Designer Pfarré Lighting Design, Munich, Germany
Team Members Gerd Pfarré, Dominik Buhl, Katharina Schramm, Jennifer Langer
Photographer Andreas J. Focke
Project Size 31,190 square feet
Project Cost Withheld
Lighting Costs Withheld
Watts per Square Foot 0.934
Code Compliance Not Applicable (No energy code requirements in the project locale.)
Manufacturers ACDC, Erco, Flos, Selux, We-ef, XAL, custom-made fixtures by Lichtlauf
To see all of the other winners of the 2014 AL Light & Architecture Design Awards, click here.
