Doesn't look like your average car factory...
No, it's also treated as a marketing event. Passers by can actually see as many as 150 cars made each day through the glass shell of the light-flooded building. It's part of the 'World of 21st Century Experience' which includes a gallery, shop, restaurant, cafe, cinema, simulators and VIP lounges.

Who's responsible?
The architect firm is Henn from Munich. The lighting consultants are Kardorff of Berlin.

What's the lighting concept?
"For our concept," explains Volker von Kardorff, "we chose luminaires whose beams don't radiate into the perimeter and beyond. Because less light at and around the facade makes it easier to view in depth. We used faceted surface reflectors. Their light distribution is very easy to control, and they don't build up luminance outside the wanted beam."

The luminaires being...
Mostly from Siteco. They came up with a secondary reflector system specifically designed for the project. It uses 826 narrowbeam spotlights of 400W each plus 413 reflectors, each of them 1sqm in size. Standard facets were not up to the job. Extensive trials and simulations finally produced what are called sculptured or free-form surfaces, where each of the approximately two by two centimetre facets is individually matched in its form. The reflectors are of injection molded plastic with an aluminum deposited and specially sealed surface.The spotlights, in arrays of four, are attached to special columns with integrated emergency lighting. Siteco T5-Circ luminaires and Lunis downlights were used to light the offices.

www.kardorff.com