Spot Mirror Lighting

Billings Jackson Design was commissioned by Grimshaw to come up with a lighting strategy for the practice’s new two storey trade fair hall in Frankfurt.

The unusual architectural solution consists of a ‘folded plate’ structure of welded steel tubes, which maximises the column-free area within the halls. This gives the upper hall great drama but poses practical difficulties for lighting.

The technical problem was two-fold; firstly how to light the building, and secondly how to ensure that the lux levels were evenly distributed across the floor without causing glare. Traditionally a building of this nature would have fluorescent or flood lighting attached to the roof, but the architectural design would not allow for this. The alternative solution was to have spotlights mounted on long arms, making servicing extremely difficult.

Billings Jackson worked with Zumtobel to find a solution. The resulting Spot Mirror system works by bouncing light from1000w spotlights mounted on the service boom onto mirrors, 1.6m in diameter mounted on the roof. These mirrors are divided into quarters, each of which is separately adjustable, ensuring that the angle of the light is perfect and an atmospheric diffused lighting is created with no glare.
 
180 mirrors and 280 spotlights span the 160m distance across the hall, emphasising the form of the building and helping visitors to orientate themselves around the hundreds of exhibition stands.