The Protestant Great St. Mary's Church is a listed Gothic sacred building in the heart of Lippstadt.
In 2021, the church was closed for two years in order to restore the vault paintings from the 16th century and to completely renovate the choir with the sacristy, the north and south aisles, the transept and the nave. The entire building technology with cable ducts, loudspeakers, network sockets and lighting was also to be renewed.
The wish was to retain the existing rod-shaped luminaires in the nave when converting the lighting to LED. The formally reduced light rods not only form an exciting contrast to the curved Gothic arches, but also to the elaborately restored brass chandeliers in the nave.
In contrast to conventional energy refurbishments, where the focus is on saving energy costs, the maintenance of existing lighting systems includes the costs and emissions for a new system in the overall calculation. In Lippstadt, for example, the luminaires were technically gutted and fitted with new light sources, ballasts and control technology.
The costs of the refurbishment were reduced and the time to amortization of the retrofit was shortened.
