Company News • 27.02.2009

Energy efficiency and atmosphere in harmony

Seit Frühjahr 2008 präsentiert sich „De Woonfabriek“ mit einer neuen...

Since spring 2008, ‘De Woonfabriek‘has been presenting itself with a new lighting solution from Ansorg taking into account two aspects which are particularly important today. On the one hand, the luminaires used emphasise the ‘shop-in-shop’ concept and create a pleasant shopping atmosphere. On the other hand, the energy-efficient lighting always ensures a pleasant room atmosphere in the sales area on the top floor of the ‘Villa Arena’ in Amsterdam and contributes considerably to cutting energy costs.

The shopping mall ‘Villa Arena’ opened in 1996 with 80 retailers and a display area of 75,000 square metres impresses with its interesting architecture. The four shopping levels link up together all round a curved atrium. Here is the meeting place of the ‘Who‘s Who’ of the furnishing world, with furniture and kitchen studios as well as shops for home accessories. ‘De Woonfabriek’ situated on the top floor pursues a shop-in-shop concept, in which different manufacturers from the home area can sell their products with their own sales staff in spatially delimited areas. This results in quite special demands being made on the lighting concept developed by the Mülheim luminaire manufacturer.

The main aim consisted in generating an exciting factory atmosphere in the 8,000 square metre-large sales room. For that purpose, the existing ambient lighting with fluorescent lamps for wide-area illumination is supplemented with attractive accent lighting using metal halide lamps.

On the white painted ceiling, the surface-mounted spotlights of the Boxx series from Ansorg, equipped with 35 W metal halide lamps and an adjustable reflector, create delimited areas of light. The ‘room in a room’ is produced, with an interesting setting of scenes for the merchandise on display.

In order to be in keeping with the different aspirations of the merchandise presentation, the surface-mounted spotlight reflector can be adjusted i.e. the focus and/or beam angle can be adapted to new applications by the sales staff at any time and without tools. For example, it is possible to respond quite flexibly to a different application without replacement of the reflector and to always align the light as desired. Differentiated requirements are also met by the ‘mood‘ filter with which the light colour temperature can be influenced so as to thus highlight the products, such as classic and oriental furniture, and at the same time to demarcate them from the adjacent areas. With the ‘sun’ filter, you can intensify a saturation of certain colours, so that, for example, wood-coloured exhibits can appear even more appealing. The surface-mounted Boxx spotlights hence prove an outstanding tool for systematic shop design.

In areas with suspended ceilings and thus a low room height, the recessed downlights Punta and/or Bola – likewise fitted with metal halide lamps – achieve a similar effect. Here, too, these downlights, in combination with sophisticated reflector technology, ensure brilliant colour rendition.

The aisle areas are illuminated by white painted, decorative suspended Cupola luminaires. With their imposing and aesthetic shapes these form a counterpoint to the recessed Boxx spotlights and underline the factory atmosphere. A contrast is also formed, between the rather diffuse light of the compact fluorescent lamps and the brilliant light of the metal halide lamps.

But not only problem of the ‘frugal’ setting of the scenes for the merchandise was solved to the owner’s satisfaction by Ansorg. This applies likewise to the challenge that resulted from the location of the ‘De Woonfabriek’ on the top floor of the mall as well as from the existing electrical design of the installation. For example, on the one hand, the complete connected power of the new lighting solution was not to be increased. On the other hand, the heat build-up of the luminaires had to be minimised. So, in the surface-mounted spotlights, metal halide lamps with only 35 watts were used which through operation on electronic ballasts make their maximum luminous flux available and hence also at this low power stage provide excellent illumination of the sales area.

Due to the low heat dissipation, there is a pleasant room temperature in ‘De Woonfabriek’ even in the summer and the customers can enjoy their shopping experience in an attractive lighting atmosphere. The ‘energy-saving’ result is also shown in the owner’s till since, due to the considerably lower power consumption, there has been a refund from the electricity supplier. The large shopping mall in the Netherlands devoted to the furnishing sector gains in attractiveness with the fascinating and at the same time energy-efficient lighting solution from Ansorg.