Archbishop's vocational college in Cologne with linear lighting solutions

The core of the archbishop's vocational college's design, which won the competition, is an organically shaped atrium, which is intended to act as the heart of the building, traffic area, meeting place, auditorium and light space. Here, the flanking gallery walls were faded in using continuous, concealed grazing light profiles. They make it possible to experience the room in all its complexity from all perspectives.

Organically shaped recesses in the beams of the atrium galleries are filled with so-called "seals". These wooden bodies with round cut-outs accommodate adjustable track spotlights. They illuminate the floor area of the atrium and the sculptural stairs in a glare-free and high-contrast manner. Open learning zones form semi-private niches in the atrium galleries. Some of these are equipped with elaborately designed multifunctional furniture, which is cleverly surrounded by recessed ceiling lights.

The classrooms are illuminated with continuous, slim LED lines. These follow the polygonal façade outlines in three tracks, illuminating the classrooms in a uniform and at the same time glare-free manner. The light track follows all changes of direction with mitres illuminated right into the corners. In this way, the LED lines can also be read from the outside as spatially staggered outlines. The café on the ground floor presents itself with its staggered wooden ceiling panels, which are visually separated from each other by LED light. The functional room lighting is provided by recessed directional spotlights, which compensate for the slope of the ceiling thanks to their design and at the same time provide concentrated, brilliant light for the café tables.

In the library, the shelf lighting planned by the interior design firm Keggenhoff comes entirely from the furniture. Only in the edge area, along the generous facade glazing, are the reading areas illuminated again by downlights in a Heradesign ceiling.

The escape staircases are illuminated from LED-lines in exposed concrete recesses. On the underside of the stairs, the LED-lines form an uninterrupted light-graphic as well as functional element. Along the end walls of the landings, the LED-lines are largely hidden and occupy designed walls with grazing light. The light columns of the outdoor lighting keep an appropriate distance from the façade. Benches contain grazing light for the paths near the façade, and selected trees are illuminated from the ground without glare.

InstaLighting supplied LEDLUX LS linear, the modular LED line system with which all LED lines in the atrium, learning zones and escape staircases were realised. Thanks to the compact design and modularly configurable length, the LEDLUX lighting inserts fit optimally into the existing architecture and enable seamless line management.