Hall 32 Gastro 32South, Gummersbach

ARCHITECTURE
Heinrich Böll Architects, Essen

PHOTOGRAPHY
Thomas Mayer, Neuss

CUSTOMER
Entwicklungsgesellschaft Gummersbach mbH

LOCATION
Gummersbach, Germany

STATUS
Realized 2013

With the revitalization of the Steinmüller site, which has played a decisive role in shaping Gummersbach as an industrial enterprise for over 100 years, the cultural and event center Hall 32 is to be established as an ideal link between tradition and the future of the area.

As a symbol of history, Hall 32 stands geographically at the center of the site and its heterogeneous building fabric vividly illustrates the various conversion and expansion phases since its construction at the end of the 19th century. Brick masonry, concrete surfaces and infill pieces of quarry stone are preserved, as are relics of earlier uses and annexes that no longer exist.

The impressive, 12m high industrial hall offers itself as a starting point for the lighting design.

Room height must be exploited!

You have to really emphasize them!
The lighting concept works with the twelve meter room height.

Two optical systems for light control are used for the illumination of the guest room:

A narrow-spot directional luminaire with a 6° optic for strong, extremely tightly focused light, which over the height of 12 meters, creates a circle of light about one meter in diameter on the tables and was positioned directly above the seating areas, and a directional luminaire with a medium beam angle of 12°, which, placed in the peripheral areas, also provides a soft grazing light on the highly structured walls.

Just like in the theater!

The floor-to-ceiling enclosed back wall behind the bar impressively symbolizes the building’s layers of time. Instead of accentuated lighting or visible light sources, the heterogeneous surface is highlighted and evenly illuminated.

The building structure, with a concrete girder about 60 centimeters high at a short distance from the wall, allows the installation of a simple LED strip light channel, invisible to the viewer, which, aligned parallel to the wall, creates an effective “curtain of light”.

The luminaires themselves are not readable and turn the support frame into the stage portal of the architectural staging.

The existing steel girders were equipped with individually adjustable accent lighting that draws the eye to the charming details of the industrial architecture and creates additional contrasts of the materiality of old and new.

Drawing with light.

The matte black painted plasterboard surfaces behind the old iron beam enhance the effect of the cast iron surface mounted LED spotlights placed to the left and right of the beam.