Over a kilometer of dead straight light lines

Lighting makes the space

The renovated entrance and western passenger tunnel at Amsterdam Central Station have truly become a picture. This is partly thanks to the sophisticated lighting solutions of LICHTNL, which enhance the design of the spaces without you even noticing it. Because good light cannot be seen, is the credo of the lighting consultants from Barendrecht.

LICHTNL works extensively with consulting and engineering firms and for this project was asked by ZJA/Arcadis and ProRail as early as 2021 to assist in a technical lighting solution for the Westknoop. "The architect envisioned a picture of continuous light lines without interruption in the slatted ceilings," says Ali Haider, account manager at LICHTNL. "We were asked to suggest the right luminaires that fit the intended design as well as meet ProRail's strict RLN requirements. This sets conditions for, among other things, service life, repeatability and uniformity. They also wanted to know at a premature stage what things would look like."

Visualize

A station area is a pretty complex space, and that's especially true of the Westknoop. "It's filled with all kinds of obstacles such as arches, elevator shafts and stairs," says lighting consultant Rob Trieling. "So you can't just make a lighting calculation for that. It has to be accurately modeled." And that is precisely the domain in which LICHTNL feels extremely at home. "We know what an architect would like to see and visualize with renderings what will happen if you are going to combine certain warm and cool colors of light in the underpasses and passenger tunnel, for example." On that basis, LICHTNL worked out a lighting plan with two different fixtures: 40 pieces of Multiline fixtures for the low underpass and 1.2 kilometers of InstaLighting LED lines for the continuous light lines.

InstaLighting led lines

According to Trieling, both luminaires fall into the category of timeless A-brand product series that can still be reproduced well in x number of years. "Another big advantage of the InstaLighting LED lines is that they contain far fewer components than an average LED strip. This is because they are a 230-volt system. No drivers or transformers are needed for control. The system contains only dimming units. This not only makes it much easier for installation and assembly, but also benefits reliability. The whole system is therefore much less prone to failure." LICHTNL delivered the InstaLighting LED lines plug-and-play stranded, in the right combination of standard and fitting lengths. "So it was also quite a preparation logistically, since everything had to be delivered just-in-time in several shipments," Haider reflects. 

Multiline

The underpass is fitted with a special fixture from Multiline. "We developed that together with the manufacturer for an earlier project of ProRail, the new station in Lansingerland-Zoetermeer," says Trieling. "The great thing is that the fixture is now sold all over the world. Because it is basically a co-extrusion, the profile is easy to make waterproof and dustproof. It is also modular, impact-resistant and can be made to any length without deviating from the standard product shape. In addition, the luminaire is now available in all kinds of capacities: recessed, surface-mounted and as a pendant version."

The renewed entrance to the western passenger tunnel was officially opened on June 2, and the lighting has been 'on' ever since. "To the full satisfaction of both our direct client Klaver Technisch Bedrijf and BAM Infra Nederland and ProRail," says Haider. "It tastes like more, because the same products will also be used in the expansion and redevelopment of the east side of Amsterdam Central Station. And that is a considerably larger project. In the next project, we will take the 'lessons learned' and will apply even less electronics. That is our standard strategy: we always go for the best solution with statistically the lowest number of components per m2 of product."