Its previous colour-changing lighting system, installed a decade ago, had become outdated and did not provide the deep, highly saturated colouration desired by the architect. Therefore, with TriGránit Management Ingatlankezelö és Hasznosító Kft. on board as investor, a tender was initiated for modernisation of the façade lighting system, which SGM won by engaging with local distributor, Zaj System House Trading.
Their executive director, Tamás Fazekas, explains, "As this is a stand-alone building on the banks of the Danube, which is bordered by one of the busiest bridges in the city, all the façades are of equal importance and the lighting system needs to concentrate on each of them without any exclusion."
Different lighting manufacturers participated in the tender bid and thus a shoot-out was held last autumn when the products were put through their paces. Zaj System House submitted a complete projection design for the shoot-out in cooperation with László Vértessy, owner of Tissy Lighting Ltd. "The dominance of the SGM P-5 was unquestionable from the beginning," says Tamás Fazekas. "No other product had such powerful output, which was very important because of the high level of surrounding street lighting and light pollution coming from different sources."
Zaj System House, celebrating its 20th anniversary as an SGM distributor, is accustomed to installing permanent outdoor lighting systems using SGM solutions.
After the official order was placed for the P-5 wash lights, the removal of the former fixtures, the modification of the structures, the design and fitting of the new electrical system, the installation, setting and testing were all executed by Zaj System House's team, led by József Zsemberi, one of the company owners.
Ninety P-5 fixtures were used for the extensive façade illumination - 48 of which were custom-made in silver, to be placed on 5- and 8m high columns with the smaller shape and size of the P-5s over their predecessors creating a clear benefit. The remaining SGM wash lights are placed on terraces, roofs and stands in the garden - three pieces are even mounted at 18-metre height in the atrium, which were installed by industrial 'alpinists', since no one else could achieve this height.
The objective was achieved by introducing the small, elegant, custom colour P-5, with its high output, low power consumption; this offers different projection angles and fulfils the architect's original dream to turn the complete building into any deep and saturated, or light pastel colour desired.
"As the old system could not produce sufficient light power in deep, saturated colours, in recent years the building has mostly been illuminated in white or a very light colour such as yellow. The new possibilities provided by the enormous power of the P-5's match the creativity of the architects and operators," Tamás Fazekas explains.
"We can emphasise that all the expectations of the look, colour saturation and homogeneity have been met, and that the client and the architect are satisfied."
Zaj System House has already moved onto further new installations with SGM equipment, where among other projects, an outdoor stage is being installed with various pieces of the new Q-7 and the SixPack blinder.
(Jim Evans)
