Nova Eventis, Leipzig, Germany

Realized by shopping center planning and development company ECE, Nova Eventis is Germany’s most innovative ‘event mall,’ a unique combination of shopping and leisure facility whose aim it is to give visitors an out-of-the-ordinary experience. When planning the mall value was placed on events that would increase visitors’ quality and duration of stay. Aside from technical and logistical aspects, an ‘event mall’ puts special demands on the visual composition of the architecture.

According to ECE’s philosophy, high demands were placed on the design of artificial light, the utilization of daylight as well as the limitation of sunlight. In collaboration with the Peter Andres company, tests were performed at the mall location in Leipzig and a dynamic lighting concept was developed for the mall’s various zones. The concept takes into account the time of day and seasonal alterations, as well as certain festive days. Lighting and media designers Oliver Jene and Tobias Link of Scenario Licht & Klangkonzepte in Saarbrücken were then engaged to create the scenographic illumination.

Four seasons
Lighting designed by Tobias Link creates an ambiance which reflects the four seasons and is perceptible as a basic theme throughout the public mall zones. Four lighting scores were generated to provide dynamics, color values and graphic elements with lighting control managed by a media controller. The entire color illumination network, specially developed by Scenario, is based on DMX and serves as an extension of the building’s EIB control system. EIB, an approved system for the automation of buildings, would have had trouble dealing with the various and particularly high-frequency control tasks of the dynamic lighting production.

Scenery facade
The scenery façade with its ‘adventure quay’ comprises two levels of variously graduated areas. Tobias designed a facade illumination which accentuates the character of the individual areas. Martin 150 W Inground 200 color changing luminaires make it possible to completely ‘de-familiarize’ the structures and redefine the architecture by means of lighting. De-familiarization means that each component of the fragmented, nested architecture can preserve its own special character. Light intensity and color have been adapted to the respective materials and their surface textures.

Water show
One of the shopping center’s main attractions is the lake stage which features nine artistic fountain circles. Lighting here consists of LED underwater luminaires and Martin 150 W Exterior 200 color changers which allow the individual cascades and water curtains to appear vividly. Scenario made certain that even the control circuits of the pumps are operable via the lighting media controller. The combination of fountains, gorgeous illumination and projection from profile spots produces a special mixture of scenographic components. Lighting effects above the lake stage merge with the scenery facade to provide an active, animated element alongside the static architecture.

Interior mall zone
Seasons are also represented in the interior zone as each of four differently colored rotundas receives graphics projection from Martin Imager projectors. The Scenario-designed photographic themes are consistent with the respective season and enable the space to periodically appear in a new motif.

Owner: PCP Prime Commercial Properties
General planning: ECE Projektmanagement, Hamburg
Design: Gisela Simon, Ullrich Schilling
Axel Theisinger, Mariana Theiling, ECE
Technical lighting: Peter Andres Lichtplanung, Hamburg
Dramaturgic production, planning of scenographic lighting, multimedia controlling concept based on DMX, and music composition: Oliver Jene, Tobias Link, Scenario Licht & Klangkonzepte, Saarbrücken
Images: Oliver Jene, www.scenario.li