THORNICO BUILDING

Kollision, together with Martin Professional, and in dialog with Christian Stadil the owner of Thornico Group, and Thornico real estate director Ronald L.M. Bouwens, developed and implemented a complete exterior lighting design for the office building and parking house Thornico Building in the centre of Rotterdam. The building is a large complex of office spaces, shops, dining and cultural facilities, two inner atriums and close to 800 parking spaces. In this building the 'Company Karma philosophy' developed by Christian Stadil has been embodied as a series of green initiatives, for example covering large parts of the parking facilities with plants and integrating LED light as a communicative strategy. This unique interplay between communication, building and visitor is a powerful form of branding, which Kollision has coined Enhanced Brand Ambience, a communicative strategy that innovative companies can use to great effect.

The lighting designs range from pragmatic functional light at the car entrance and in the atriums, light sources emphasizing the green values on flag poles, at the main entrance area and at the reception, to the most significant part – 170 meters of vertical LED tubes distributed onto the 4.000 m2 facade. The tubes draw lines that underlines the monumentality of the architecture by emphasizing where the building starts and stops, the corner at Hartmansstreet and Westblaak, and furthermore indicate the main entrances - all supported by the dynamic content and lighting design. Slow movements of green nuances travels up the tubes replaced by rhythms of sinus-like curves of green, which travels across the facade's 200 meters, to more ambient and sparkling expressions, which gives the concrete building an almost ethereal look. The new lighting design makes the building look lighter and makes it stand out in the urban space.

Kollision developed the main lighting design, the dynamic content and player system, controllable via a web interface. Martin Professional handled all lighting hardware supply and the installation was completed by local supplier WL Techniek.