LED linear luminaires for metro station
New Light for the "Dragon of Dampremy"
Coal, steel and glass made Charleroi one of the richest cities in the world in the 19th century. From 1970, however, a slow decline of the former industrial metropolis followed: the coal mines, glassworks and steelworks closed down and ultimately plunged the city into a prolonged recession. Today, a few decades later, the third largest city in Belgium is flourishing once again. And with it the stations of the city railway, like the one in the Dampremy district. After a general overhaul in 2018, the semi-underground station, which is popularly referred to as the "Dragon of Dampremy" because of its unconventional architecture, shines in new splendour.
Only the basic structure of the former, rather gloomy station has been preserved. The corrugated sheeting on the slopes of the individual segments have given way to large glass facades on the sawtooth roof-like housing, so that as much natural light as possible penetrates the platform. The entrance, which used to be dark, was also redesigned and is now a bright and spacious area inviting passengers to take a ride.
Pic: The station is also popularly known as "The Dragon of Dampremy". Custom-made luminaires by Barthelme make its structure visible to travellers from afar.
In the outdoor area of the station, custom-made linear luminaires from Barthelme were integrated into the individual roof segments. The luminaires, measuring 30 x 30 mm and of varying lengths, are based on aluminium profiles from the CATania series and could be easily integrated into the existing architecture with the appropriate brackets. The opal encapsulation of the individual luminaires achieves protection class IP 67. The lighting solution is therefore not only well protected from the weather, it also frames the silhouette of the roof construction with absolutely uniform light as dusk falls. Inserted in the luminaires are LED strips of the Barthelme LEDlight flex High Efficiency series. These achieve an efficiency of over 140 lumens per watt and a brightness suitable for this lighting task of 1,180 lumens per metre at a colour temperature of 4000 Kelvin. The distance between the LED chips and each other is smaller than the distance between the LED chips and the opal light emmitting surface, so that an absolutely homogeneous light distribution is ensured.
Pic: The original architecture of the station has been completely preserved. Fully encapsulated customized luminaires based on the CATania 3030 aluminium profile encase the roof structures.
A standard-compliant illumination of the floor and escalator played an important role in the entrance area in addition to IP protection. To achieve the prescribed lux values, Barthelme LEDlight flex High Efficiency Pro LED strips with their high luminous flux of 4,140 lumens per meter at 4000 Kelvin were used. As in the outdoor area, aluminium profiles from the CATania series were used as housings. However, in a larger version with dimensions of 60 x 75 mm. The larger surfaces of the alumumium profile ensure optimum heat dissipation, which has a positive effect on the lifetime of the very powerful LED strips of this series.
Pic: Fully encapsulated custom made luminaires with a luminous intensity of over 4,000 lumens per metre illuminate the entrance area of the station in accordance with the relevant standards.
Customer TEC Lighting Design Lucius Project ©Photographer Huppertz