Con­crete

It is still unusual to see con­crete lumi­naires, even though it is the most com­monly used con­struc­tion mate­r­ial in modern archi­tec­ture. Con­crete is some­thing of a chameleon: depend­ing on how it is processed, it can form either rough, or smooth cool sur­faces, and it can be coloured­matched to its sur­round­ings. In its typ­i­cal man­i­fes­ta­tion as slightly struc­tured exposed con­crete, it is plain, simple, and radi­ates calm. Colour accents such as golden reflec­tors can be used to create a charm­ing con­trast with the cool of the con­crete. From a prac­ti­cal per­spec­tive, this is a robust, durable and rugged mate­r­ial. In the cityscape, con­crete ele­ments are viewed less as tech­nol­ogy and more as archi­tec­ture – per­fect for a clear, iconic urban land­scape.

Wood

Just as modern plan­ning con­cepts are again embrac­ing nature as an inte­gral ele­ment of urban space, wood is also expe­ri­enc­ing a renais­sance. Its advan­tages extend far beyond the func­tional: wood arouses emo­tions, it emanates a sense of warmth and nat­u­ral­ness, it is relax­ing, and at the same time cre­ates a vibrant atmos­phere. Wood binds CO₂, pro­duces oxygen as it forms, and inte­grates beau­ti­fully with its sur­round­ings. As a mate­r­ial for lumi­naires and poles, wood is par­tic­u­larly suit­able for living spaces that are in har­mony with nature and that are designed to make people feel good. To get the right tech­ni­cal prop­er­ties, care­ful choice of the wood type, its ori­gins and the right sur­face treat­ment are cru­cial. This pro­tects the wood from the impacts of weather, ensures a long lifes­pan, as it also affects the appear­ance: for exam­ple with glaze effects that lighten or darken the nat­ural colour tone, or take it in a cooler or warmer direc­tion with­out mask­ing the wood’s nat­ural grain and organic char­ac­ter.

Glass and poly­car­bon­ate

We use glass to pro­tect our light­ing units. Its high light trans­mit­tance makes glass – this amor­phously solid­i­fied melt­ing of min­er­als – not just a favourite con­struc­tion mate­r­ial for archi­tects; its good refrac­tion index means it is used as a func­tional opti­cal mate­r­ial in light­ing tech­nol­ogy – think lenses, fil­ters or glass covers. Researchers and engi­neers have suc­cess­fully over­come its prover­bial fragility. Tem­pered glass ele­ments in lumi­naires can with­stand the high­est of loads – and are easily recy­clable at the end of the product’s life. As an alter­na­tive to glass, we use visu­ally iden­ti­cal trans­par­ent plas­tics such as acrylic glass (PMMA) or poly­car­bon­ate (PC). Their advan­tage is that they are lighter, more robust and, as ther­mo­plas­tics, they can be diecast to create com­plex com­po­nents, which in lumi­naires can serve as both visual and struc­tural ele­ments. This mul­ti­func­tion­al­ity, cou­pled with type-pure recy­cling oppor­tu­ni­ties, ensures opti­mal use of valu­able resources.