Led lighting is a magician! The basement dining room changes to the Rhine in seconds

A sunless basement is certainly not the ideal environment for a restaurant. However, thanks to the architects’ and lighting designers’ imaginative scheme, diners are “instantaneously transported” to the Rhine to enjoy the scenery while enjoying the soothing circadian rhythm — the lighting changes perfectly match the body clock.

Coordinates: Dusseldorf, Germany

Owner: HSBC Global Asset Management Headquarters

Area: 500 square meters

What it does: Staff cafeteria

Architecture: TTSP HWP Seidel, Germany

Lighting design: Germany Licht Kunst Licht

Wipe the wall lamp, lantern brand: iGuzzini

Chandelier brand: XAL, Artek

Ceiling installation spotlights brand: Soraa

Restaurant floor plan, from Architectural Record

The old 1970s building was recently renovated at a cost of $15.4 million. Install modern facilities including HVAC, acoustic system, lighting, kitchen, security etc. A key element of the design task was to introduce daylight to create a comfortable communication environment for staff and kitchen staff.

Photo of exterior wall, from Google Maps

Local authorities have mandated that daylight be introduced into windowless Spaces, but the current situation is small patios and small Windows. “We did the math and realized that daylight is not enough,” explains LKL lighting designer Isabel Sternkopf. The building is protected and does not allow damaging the structure to add a patio, and the designers considered using Human Centric Lighting to simulate natural light and match the user’s circadian rhythm.

The team created a background wall that mimics floor-to-ceiling glass Windows across one side of the restaurant, and the scale of the photo mimics people’s views from ground level. The “intelligent” human lighting (HCL) control system simulates daylight to increase the sense of reality. This scheme introduces plenty of light into the basement, which is beneficial to the staff, rather than adding intrusive or unnecessary interference. The design team finalized the scene programming of the luminous wall, simulating the annual and daily variations of daylight, including dynamics, light color, direction and intensity.

Restaurant photo, quoted from IALD official website

Das Rheinprojekt, 21 meters long and 3 meters high, was photographed by Stephan Kaluza at intervals along the Rhine River, which is more than 1,000 kilometers away. In this case, he chose the view of the River near Dusseldorf.

Das Rheinprojekt, from the artist’s website

In order not to take up too much interior space, the thickness of the “window wall” light box is only 15 cm in the final design. In order to ensure the lighting effect, the photos are printed on the convex and wrinkled plasterboard. led linear wall wipe lights are continuously mounted on the ceiling and floor to illuminate the background painting from above and below.

Schematic diagram of section, drawn by Xu Qinghui

The color temperature of the wall cleaning lamp is adjustable, which is warm at 2700K in the morning, gradually rising to cold white at 6000K at noon, and falling back to warm tones in the evening. The floor is also fitted with an entire RGBW LED line-type wall rub light to enhance simulation effects, such as a focal orange tone during simulated sunrise and sunset.

Sunrise and sunset focal orange, LED lighting design

Morning 2700K, LED lighting design

Noon 6000K, LED lighting design

Cloudy 10000K, LED lighting design

In addition to this most eye-catching view wall, the lighting design of other locations is also very extreme, just like a high-end restaurant.

Defining it as “a restaurant rather than a canteen”, architect Tanja Nopens designed a pick-up area and three dining areas, complete with bespoke oak tables and black seating. A cylindrical chandelier is installed on the high table of the bar. The lamp body is painted white and integrated into the white ceiling. The brass Alvar Aalto chandelier is suspended from the lower level to add a welcoming atmosphere to this leisure area.

Dining area and dining area, LED lighting design

LED down lights are installed on the black ceiling of the dining area, and a high light source is specified to enhance the attractiveness of the food. Some of the lights have a fixed color temperature of 2700K, while others are adjustable and programmed to adapt to the changing color of the view wall light. Create a realistic atmosphere that automatically changes throughout the day, just like in a sunroom.

Dining area, LED lighting design

Artist Kaluza created a ceiling grid installation in the central dining area: 10 black aluminum strips 6 to 12 meters long, embedded with 55 LED lights, 2700K warm downward lighting.

Ceiling grid device, LED lighting design

The most popular dining area is clearly the “riverside” seating, where delicate matte black aluminum chandeliers are suspended from the table, aided by small rounded spotlights in the ceiling to create a riverside cafe feel. Both chandeliers and spotlights have a 2700K color temperature, which contrasts with the adjacent “exterior” light color.

Riverside seating, LED lighting design

The lighting wall provides human lighting in a daylight deprived space, respecting the user’s circadian rhythm. The high quality lighting atmosphere makes people want to stay and this successful renovation project increases the user’s happiness. “It was a great success in many ways!” One of the judges said: “Bringing in light and scenery, turning a wall that has nothing into an important landscape.”

The HSBC Restaurant project in Dusseldorf, Germany, lighting by Licht Kunst Licht (LKL), won the IALD Award of Excellence, presented by Project designers Isabel Sternkopf and Andreas Schulz.

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