LUCE estratti LUCE 319_Longo, Rizzato Naressi_Piano nobile di lu | Page 8

The main idea was “to use the Kaispeicher
A (the former warehouse, ed.) as a pedestal
and to place something on top of it that,
in contrast to the archaic solidity of the
storehouse, had a very different, expressive
form,” said Herzog to Der Spiegel. This assertion
suggests the interpretation of the large glass
box upstairs as a piano nobile of light: the
triumph of music – or, more in general,
of its refined sophistication – over the savage
character of the underlying commerce –
the harbour –, as if it were a Renaissance
palace. Ulrike Brandi, who directed the lighting
design of this gargantuan project, has a more
modest and less elite idea of it: “This is surely
a cultural building in an industrial area,
which is beautiful because the whole HafenCity
is now used in another function than it was
fifty or hundred years ago. I intervened in the
project when the architects were in the
preliminary design phase and they were looking
for a lighting designer. When I won the little
competition to get the official commission,
I was really happy because I like that
architecture. The old warehouse Kaispeicher
A was built with bricks in the Sixties by architect
Werner Kallmorgen, who was very famous
in Germany in his time. His buildings are clear
and modest, always in relation with the
environment and the urban context. In this
case the building’s function was primarily
to store commodities in a warehouse, with
very few small windows: for that reason H&dM’s
idea of a concert hall on top of it was simply
fantastic. Humankind loves and enjoys music:
I think it is very nice to enjoy this together in
a wonderful light. Nevertheless I do not know
if I would use words such as triumph.
When I do lighting design or when I work
with light for architecture, it is always
an expression of us all as social beings.”
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LUCE 319 / CORRISPONDENZA DA BERLINO
In respect to this social interpretation of
architecture, we know that the building allows
free access regardless of concerts attendance.
Yes, you have free entry to the Plaza,
the platform between the brick and the glass
house. This was a substantial matter of
discussion in the city of Hamburg, as they
did not want a building only for rich or very
educated people, or for those who can pay
for remarkably expensive tickets. The citizens
and the administration of Hamburg wanted
this building to be for everybody, with public
areas where everybody could go. There is also
a big educational program going on, school
pupils and kids can do workshops and similar
activities there. This was a clear political point.
What kind of role was light supposed
to play toward the outside?
Due to its special location, the Elbphilharmonie
is unique in terms of light conditions and
the building is now the city’s new landmark.
As the upper part is made of glass, the fact that
the events are always visible from the outside
by way of their illumination was particularly
interesting for me. When the light is on in the
main concert hall, which is situated at the very
centre of the building, people understand from
the outside that a concert will take place.
First of all we stated that the architecture of the
Elbphilharmonie was powerful enough, so we
did not start a secondary spectacle of light.
The light is complementary, modest, and works
with simple optical principles. We decided
not to direct any light to the lower brick block
– even if it thus becomes much darker than
the glass house –, since it would have looked
artificial and as prominent as the upper part.
In this way the brick base of the building retains
its modest flair and only gets a bit of the light
reflected by the surrounding area.
My attitude has been to keep the relation
with the environment strong: just because
it is now the most important building, it does
not need to be over-illuminated. It was
essential for me to always keep the connection
between the inside and the outside. Sky, water
and the panoramic view of the city should be
always experienced from the inside. This means
the interior of the building should not be too
bright. We chose a lighting that glows and
is not as strong as an advertisement. We also
had in mind that one might control this light
source and maybe dim it to the lowest setting
during the late night.
How did you deal with the daylight that
passes through the glass facade?
This type of glass has plenty of functions,
but first of all it must insulate the building
from the heat in order to keep a constant
temperature inside. To solve this issue, we
printed different patterns of dots on a highly
sophisticated multi-layers glass technology.
In contrast to the usual sun protection glass, light
is not uniformly filtered over the entire window
surface. We calculated the amount of such dots
in consideration of how much light and heat we
had to reflect: they become denser along the
edges, while the view is free in the middle.
The dots are silver coated outside so that they
reflect light. On another layer, there are
non-reflective black points. They allow visitors to
look outside without being blinded by the sun.
Zumtobel developed the 1,200 hand-blown
glass ball luminaires and other high-quality
lighting solutions of the overall concept…
This lighting system was designed by Herzog
& de Meuron together with our office (Ulrike
Brandi Licht, ed.). We then chose the company
that could realise the object and build it in