SDA 2022 Entries

• Light + Surface - The innovative use of light and the way it is inextricably linked to surfaces, whether it’s the effect the light has on the surrounding surfaces or the materials used to create the light.  

After several years of renovation, the grand Östermalms Saluhall in Stockholm – one of the world’s foremost food and dining venues, reopened in March 2020. The new lighting is designed with careful consideration and preservation of this heritage listed building.
As the building has been given the highest level in the Stockholm City Museum’s cultural classification the total renovation was carried out with great attention to its cultural and historical heritage and the lighting design was no exception.
The design process started out with a historical investigation of the building, followed by a visual analysis of the site to find out whether the daytime identity matched the experience of the building at night. From this visual analysis, the following goals of the lighting design brief were formulated:
• Östermalms Saluhall should remain a visual focal point as night falls.
• Illuminate the building with vertical light to aid visual hierarchy, and to enhance the architectural details and strengthen the building's character through light.
• The experience at day should be consistent with the experience at night and the lighting must strengthen building’s visual identity.
Throughout the project the lighting designers were on site during the construction phase to ensure the quality of the implementation plan and assist with the focus and programming of the lighting. Several test lights were carried out to find out how to best illuminate the façade vaults at street level. During the onsite tests it was clear that we needed to custom-make vandal and glare protection for the façade luminaires to carefully adapt the flow of light. The pendant luminaires at the main entrance have also been adapted specifically to this project and for the luminaires on the roof we designed special glare protection to avoid glare onto the surrounding residential properties.
The installation of all lighting equipment had to be carried out in accordance with the requirement by The Stockholm Beauty Council (Stockholms skönhetsråd), to restore the building to its original condition. Therefore, the luminaires have been mounted in the joints of the façade as not to damage the face of this culturally and historically significant building.
The lighting design project was carried out in close collaboration with the client, project leader, electrical engineer, and The Stockholm Beauty Council.

The main goal was to strike a balance between the local surroundings and the city while strengthening the building as a landmark, without it becoming a solitaire in the urban space.
The new lighting reinforces the urban design as night falls, revealing the original architectural beauty through façade lighting and is designed to enhance the building as a way-finding element at night. With an aim to subtly accentuate the many details of the brick façade, which beautifully stands out in the urban space, we chose to illuminate selected areas of the facade. This way, these details and unique patterns become even clearer as night falls.
Östermalms Saluhall is a perfect example of how to design lighting in balance with the city space and clearly demonstrates the benefits of the right urban lighting design.

The lighting adapts to the rhythm of the city with two different settings for evening and night. The dimming levels of the façade lighting were an important requirement in the granted building permission. As the light levels are maintained low for a balanced visual impact it also allows for significant energy savings and low power consumption especially at night.
While the total wattage of the installation is around 3200W, the evening scene only has an energy consumption of around 2400 W which is replaced by a night scene of around 900 W, with a smooth transition of 3 minutes triggered by an astronomical clock. This brings the total energy consumption down to 0,27W/m2 at night.
All light scenarios and light levels can be controlled with DALI to ensure an easy interoperability and controllable lighting system. The major foci have been to take the environmental and historic perspective into account from the beginning of the project. No luminaires are superfluous, each light point serves its purpose by being correctly placed with the necessary light level. This makes it both energy efficient and gives the façade a strong visual expression without jeopardizing the original architecture. The scale and intensity of lighting clearly responds to the scale of Östermalms Saluhall.

Östermalms Saluhall’s red brick facade is adorned with intricate cast-iron, plaster and brick details. With its clean lines and architectural details the building clearly becomes a prominent landmark in the square.
The challenges with the façade lighting were to strike a balance between the local historical surroundings and the vibrant city and at the same time enhance the building as a visual focal point after dark.
The design process resulted in a concept with clearly defined layers of light highlighting the vertical details and harmonizing the signage with the surrounding lighting, as well illuminating selected architectural elements, such as the vaults and window openings.
As the building has been given the highest building classification by Stockholm City Museum, all mounting details were carefully considered not to cause any damage to the historically significant building.