Product Type
Application Area
Lighting Effect
Product Type
Application Area
Lighting Effect

The Brothers Grimm Museum

About Project


Famous throughout the world for their fairy tales, the Brothers Grimm have also contributed to the birth of German linguistics. The city of Kassel, where they lived and worked for over 30 years, has built a new museum to celebrate their work. The construction designed to replace the building that housed the Grimm museum from 1959 to 2014, is the result of a competition that kadawittfeldarchitektur won in 2011. Born from the ashes of an industrial villa razed to the ground by bombardments in 1945, the construction in reinforced concrete, clad in travertine, rises with various levels and juts out of the slope like a fortification wall on the southern edge of an ancient vineyard. A glass structure that reflects the external environment houses the lift, that during opening hours provides barrier-free access to the terrace. The indoor space is open and well-lit allowing the visitor’s gaze to wonder across all the floors on staggered levels of the eastern part. Beyond the high foyer, that extends south along the whole depth of the building, and continuing beyond the introductory hall on the left and the large white structures of the reception on the right, visitors reach an area filled with natural light that comes in from the full wall window.

The café, which is also used outside the museum opening hours, is housed in this space. For the introductory hall, which can also house temporary exhibitions, the designers selected three different positions for the Palco projectors that use COP LED, for flexibility reasons. The lighting can vary from 300 to 500 lux, by using different dimmer groups. This hall houses «Colored Roots 2009-2015» a work created especially for the Grimm Welt by Ai Weiwei and presented as a gift to the city of Kassel. The floor to ceiling introductory hall in the middle of the building, is also the connection area to access the stairs and lifts to the four staggered mezzanine levels open to the public. It acts as the starting point to discover the Grimm Welt. Lichtvision opted for a lighting solution of this space that highlighted the 9-metre vertical wall, with a pure white plaster finish, that illuminates it from different positions with Palco Wall Washer projectors. The first floor space of the introductory hall, accessed directly from the foyer, is discreetly lit, keeping the lighting levels around 200 lux to create an intimate atmosphere. The Palco projectors, with elliptical optics, are directed towards the floor to avoid creating cones of light on the walls. On the second floor, which acts as a sort of gallery, facing the vertical wall, the Palco projectors have been used to obtain a uniform lighting, with different levels of power: the projectors have three different positions and they use different dimmer groups (allowing for changes in intensity from 300 to 500 lux). This because, as it is an open space, its lighting affects the space below, which houses temporary exhibitions.


The Grimm 1 and Grimm 2 areas of the permanent exhibitions, mounted on the lower mezzanines, and the surface reserved for the extraordinary exhibitions on the upper floor of the building, use Palco projectors. For the non-exhibition areas, such as the foyer and café, the lighting is provided by the Laser Blade System 53, that runs parallel on the ceiling, ensuring a total control of the glare effects and guaranteeing maximum comfort to visitors. In the foyer adjustable modules with diffused and Wall Washer light highlight and mark out the cash desks. Whilst the Laser Blade High Contrast provide the necessary 300 lux, projecting them directly on the surface of the counter, the Laser Blade Low Contrast provide a diffused light that uniformly lights up the wooden panelling and enhances the volumes. The Wall Washers and the LED strip lighting integrated in the shelves highlight the shop area. In the café the adjustable Laser Blade modules with diffused light meet the various functional requirements thanks to the different scenes and dimming options programmed, that always ensure the desired atmosphere and the correct lighting conditions.     
 

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  • Year:
    2015
  • Client:
    Documenta Stadt Kassel, rappresentata da Amt für Hochbau und Gebäudebewirtschaftung
    Kulturamt
  • Architectural project:
    kadawittfeldarchitektur
  • Lighting project:
    Lichtvision
  • Photographer:
    Hans-Georg Esch