The store's façade design, featuring louver frames filling both sides of the building and leaving no space for windows, raised the need for not only a remote control system but a system monitoring solution. Martin Cyclo 02 color temperature changers equipped with dual control ballasts and two T5 28W 2700K fluorescent tubes were chosen to illuminate the louvers.
A custom made touch screen based control and monitoring system was developed. From the touch screen system it is possible to execute regular lighting scenes, run maintenance orientated programs, and visualize alerts on possible lamp or ballast failures. This way, once an error is spotted, service staff can go directly to the fixture in question and proceed with the necessary replacement, after accessing a cleverly designed louver pull-out mechanism.
In total, 130 indoor Cyclo 02 and 44 outdoor Cyclo 02 IP65 luminaries are mounted on the bottom of each louver on the building's façade, as well as another eight Cyclo 02s placed at the first floor shop window area. The whole package was provided by Martin Professional Japan.
Following Tokyo, Abercrombie & Fitch is scheduled to open a second store in Fukuoka, in southern Japan in 2010. In addition to its existing New York, Ginza, Los Angeles, London and Milan locations, a store in Copenhagen is also being projected.
(Jim Evans)
