Archbishop's vocational college in Cologne

At the core of the award-winning design for the Archdiocesan Vocational College lies an organically shaped atrium, intended to serve simultaneously as the heart of the building, a circulation space, a meeting place, an assembly hall, and a source of light. Here, the flanking gallery walls were illuminated using continuously mounted, concealed grazing light profiles. In doing so, they allow the multifaceted nature of the space to be experienced from every vantage point.

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.

With LEDLUX LS linear, InstaLighting supplied the modular LED linear system used to realize all LED lines throughout the atrium, learning zones, and escape stairwells. Thanks to their compact design and modularly configurable lengths, the LEDLUX light inserts integrate seamlessly into the existing architecture, enabling a continuous linear lighting design.