FAZER VISITOR CENTRE – FINLAND

 

“With just one phone call to LEDiL’s local sales representative we received superb assistance and a solution was found right away”

Håkan Långstedt – CEO of SAAS Instruments

 

PROJECT

The Fazer Visitor Centre in Southern Finland is a very unique sight. It was built to tell the story of this over 100-year old company and include a café, a restaurant, a shop, and some meeting rooms in an architecturally beautiful building. The architectural design was made by K2S and from the moment the drawings were approved it took only 15 months to finish the building; in which also the necessary paperwork and permissions were applied and granted. This meant that everything from construction to interior design and lighting had to be made simultaneously. Electrical engineering was handed down to Insinööritoimisto Nurmi Oy, and the exhibition space design to Ateljé Sotamaa, who then contacted SAAS Instruments to help with lighting. The main requirement of the lighting was to emphasize the architecture of the building, but since all the facades were almost completely made out of glass and the ceiling used very narrow bars of wood, it was not an easy task to achieve.
 

SOLUTION

SAAS Instruments used LEDiL’s RGBX lenses that were just the right size, and powerful enough, to be fitted inside the ceiling wooden bars. The colour mixing capabilities of the lenses made possible to use dynamic white light to change colour temperature and match it with natural light during the different phases of the day. Every single luminaire were given its own DMX-address, for Fazer did not only want the lighting to change according the outdoor lighting levels, but to be able to have full control over it and sweep a wave of light across the room if desired. The same RGBX lenses were then used in a showroom with full RGBW colour mixing to emphasize different colours. All in all SAAS Instruments installed almost 300 individually controlled LED lights inside the building.
 

BENEFITS

As the schedule was tight there were no time for errors and with LEDiL optics SAAS Instruments were able to provide a compact lighting solution that worked as promised. The number of visitors have exceeded the expectations and the experience you get from the space is unique. “People don’t visit places to see lighting. Its function is not to underline itself, but to affect atmosphere and evoke feelings.” tells Håkan Långstedt from SAAS Instruments and continues. “To highlight certain colours with same colour light can enrich tones and add contrast. Fazer’s blue has never been as blue as it is now. Light can be used to strengthen and to tell a story.” In the evening, thanks to the large windows and great architecture, the Fazer visitor centre is glowing far into the distance; indoor lighting now becomes outdoor lighting.