WGV Casino & Old Guardhouse

In this project, the challenge for the lighting designers was as complex as the topography of the site: three terraced levels in the casino and the gardens, adjacent a protected historical building – the „Old Guardhouse“, skylights with enormous dimensions, etc..

With our lighting concept we wanted to give carefully considered answers to all the various themes and architectural details. We did not want to push any lighting elements in the foreground, with one exception: the floating group of octahedron- shaped pendants, designed especially for the event space in the Old Guardhouse.

The Casino roof is divided in three ceiling slabs with long skylights in between. Within these slabs LED-baffles have been developed in close co-operation with the architects and acoustic planners to provide smooth indirect ambient lighting for the casino. In addition, custom made, glare-reduced LED-spotlights provide direct light for the tables.

At one side of the long skylights, a strong colorful artwork enhances the architectural concept. A LED strip, located on the opposite side of the skylight, illuminates the artwork, in order to boost its effect also during the blue hour
and in the evenings. Apart from the direct lighting effect, the reflection of the illuminated artwork creates a very pleasant, smooth gradient of colors on the light architectural surfaces, changing according to the position of the viewer.

In the Guardhouse, octahedron-shaped, custom-made pendant luminaires float in a random fashion through the multi-used event space. They were executed with dimmable fluorescents, in three different dimensions.

The terraced gardens act as a visual extension of the interior casino. This architectural composition is enhanced by linear uplighting for the dividing concrete slabs and vegetation, and with a soft wallwash for the Old Guardshouse‘s facade. Balanced lighting levels, both horizontal and vertical, support this spatial approach and create a enjoyable atmosphere.

Client
Württembergische Gemeinde-Versicherung a.G., Stuttgart

Size
2900 sqm

Architects
Hascher Jehle Architektur, Berlin

Lighting Design
Pfarré Lighting Design, Muenchen

Custom-made luminaires
Lichtlauf, Muenchen

Artists
Hansjörg Schneider, Daniel Lordick

Photography
Andreas J. Focke