Located next to the famous Berlin Zoo, Bikini Berlin is a concept shopping mall with stores, offices, cinema, and hotel, a day and nighttime destination for locals and tourists alike. Aimed at a style-conscious audience with high standards when it comes to a shopping experience, Bikini Berlin opened in late 2013 after a three-year renovation that preserved the initial character of the venue.
The centrepiece of the building complex is the historical 200m long Bikinihaus, a light, open colonnade and architectural symbol of Berlin's west cityscape. Popularly called Bikinihaus due to its two-tier architecture that is reminiscent of the revealing two-piece swim garment, the building's lower three floors contain a selection of retail stores and restaurants unique to Germany (no international chain stores here) with an integral part of the space containing modular wooden specialty shops known as Bikini Berlin boxes.
B+M Elektrobau GmbH of Berlin was contracted to provide complete electrical planning and execution for the space, including lighting for the long, open Bikinihaus hall, and completed the installation using 1000 Elation Opti Tri White and 50 Opti Tri RGB LED luminaires. "There was only one requirement really and that was for all the lighting fixtures to be reliable LED lamps," states Maik Simmchen, project manager at B+M Elektrobau. "The Elation Opti Tri lights fulfilled that and much more."
The Opti Tri White is a high-output LED luminaire with a high CRI that blends 18x 9W cool white, warm white and amber LEDs to produce a uniform projection of flat white light. The fixtures are track-mounted in rows beneath the Bikinihaus ceiling, lighting the commercial retail and walking areas below, including the Bikini Berlin boxes and staircase up to the second level.
The fixtures, used to complement and match the natural light that floods in from the steel construction's abundance of windows, draw a total power of only 160 watts per unit and have an estimated LED life of over 50,000 hours. A standard 20° lens combined with an adjustable rigging yoke and swivel head make for precise coverage of the space with easy lighting adjustments possible if needed. An optional barn door can be added to the fixture for even more accurate illumination.
Located on the ground floor and used to add a touch of dynamic colour for the all-important holiday shopping seasons or for special events are colour-changing Opti Tri RGB LED luminaires, while working from a sixth floor position and projecting down onto the second floor outer deck are IP-65 rated Elation ELAR 180 Par WW luminaires used for warm white light projection. More ELAR 180 Par WW fixtures are used to light up the forecourt of the Zoo Palast, Bikini Berlin's historic cinema, with additional fixtures used at the 25hours Hotel.
The entire Elation lighting system is controlled via five Elation Art SSC lighting controllers with expansion module ART IO units. The low-maintenance 1024-channel Art SSC control solution fits in well with the installation's low energy requirement because it uses minimal power as all operating and programming is done through a web interface.
(Jim Evans)
