With direct access to the beach promenade and view of the Baltic Sea, the modern architecture of the new Forum and café roof garden creates a special ambience. Twelve decorative columns and a scaffold of glass form a transparent and aesthetically distinctive front.
In order to meet the needs of a wider range of events, a creative Martin visual solution was proposed to architect Gerd Seele by planning engineer and lighting designer Malte Joergens.
Amptown System Company (ASC) was contracted by Seele to install three Martin Inground 200 colour changers at the base of each column for emphasis and highlighting purposes. The Martin Inground 200 is a fully weatherproof, programmable luminaire with high light intensity, full spectrum CMY colour mixing, and 0-100% intensity control.
Joergens' lighting requirement included creating an eye-catcher on the promenade for the Forum architecture but also one that satisfied the functional needs of the space. The brief called for the graceful ceiling to maintain its elegant structure and not be affected negatively by installed luminaries.
"In my search for an appropriate lamp, which could only be a floor lamp, I quickly encountered the Martin Inground 200," Joergens comments. "It combines flexible utility and brings enough brightness to the room while simultaneously creating a multi-layered color programming for different situations."
For everyday situations, an in-house engineering team is able to recall a variety of standard lighting moods from a DMX playback unit while a DMX interface is available to integrate a lighting console for larger events or more complex shows. For the opening for example, a festive gala light show was programmed with over 100 different lighting looks.
"Despite wide-ranging research, I have not found a brand that has the same light intensity, compatibility (DMX interface; addressability) and versatility (endless color mixing, dimmer, real white) together with low power consumption as the Inground 200," Joergens states.
An important installation challenge was for all Ingrounds to be installed flush to the marmoreal flooring without a visible installation gap. To meet the challenge all of the Inground installation sleeves were cut by a few millimeters so that the front ring overlaps the marmoreal ground and bears on the Inground sleeve.
(Jim Evans)
