Martin Illuminates BMW Welt

On October 20th, 2007 after a construction period of four years, the automobile delivery center BMW Welt in Munich opened its doors. Approximately 850,000 visitors are expected annually to the magnificent 500 million Euro building designed by Austrian architects Coop Himmelb(l)au.

At BMW Welt visitors not only experience the finest BMW automobiles first hand, they can also receive delivery of their newly purchased vehicle – a staged event worthy of music and lighting. BMW Welt also serves as an event forum and conference center.

Since 2005 the various construction phases of BMW Welt were supervised by eventa AG in co-operation with NAT AG (Dachau) and K+B E Tech GmbH (Cham). The technical specifications of lighting designers AG Licht (Bonn), the electrical planning company Pro Elektroplan (Ottobrunn), as well as the formative specifications of Coop Himmeb(l)au (Vienna) and investor BMW AG (Munich) were implemented perfectly.

A good fit
“AG Licht chose Martin luminaires because fixture types for all required applications – exterior, interior and floor-integration – were available within the product range,” commented lighting designer Wilfried Kramb of AG Licht.

“Also, the design of the luminaires and the overall design of the building go together very well, and the various accessories for the luminaires like filters, etc. provide the necessary flexibility in all respects. Furthermore, we were deeply confident in the support of our partner eventa AG and the knowledge of its assistants.”

The installation comprises five elements.

Architecture
In total 195 Martin Exterior 200™, 26 Martin Inground 200™, 22 Martin MAC 700 Profile™ with a special lacquer finish and 28 Martin Alien 02™ color changing luminaires have been used. All of the Martin luminaires are used to illuminate the architecture and to project a changing scene across the ceiling roof as well as the main eyecatcher, the double cone feature of the front facade. Additionally, the MAC 700s are used for special event stage lighting inside the double cone. The majority of the dynamic lighting fixtures are embedded into the overall architecture using special mounting brackets.

Lighting of the highly visible BMW logo spans the entire roof soffit of the “flying cloud” designed by Coop Himmelb(l)au. A dynamic color wave emphasizes the ease of the cantilever construction, illuminated predominantly in white by day with different color variations at night.

Staging of the automobile
Delivery of new automobiles takes place in the Premiere Area in the heart of BMW Welt. The cars are positioned on revolving stages and illuminated using ARRISUN 5 luminaires optimized with mechanical shutters. The modification of the fixtures was accomplished by eventa AG Lichtraum.

Junior Campus
At BMW Welt’s Junior Campus young visitors aged 5 to 14 learn about automotive engineering and traffic. An extensive multi-media installation with projection, games and quizzes as well as a surround sound system were installed by the eventa AG Lichtraum Solution’s team.

Lighting in this area is comprised of Martin FiberSource QFX150™ color changing fiber optic illuminators, Color Kinetics and SchnickSchnackSystems fixtures. A high-quality sound installation with Ecler Ambit loudspeakers and Ecler MPA amplifiers from Martin Professional Germany completes the special installation.

Product Information Center
At special video tables at the Product Information Center visitors get a virtual overview of their future automobile with special technical features of the cars mediated with examples. Lichtraum Solutions provided the DMX control system with EIB integration and diverse special luminaires for the cold white/warm white illumination of this area.

Control
Control of the effect lighting system represented a particular challenge. DMX needed to be fully integrated into the GLT visualization (Central Building Control System) in terms of monitoring, front-end-operation and control. A special interface provides these functions via BACNet data communication through the DMX software application niaGara DMX by Eventa Screenmotion Technologies. This fully automated solution, based on ArtNET DMX, offers a front-end depiction on PDA devices at the Premiere Area, which is linked with the control functions of the revolving stages as well as the delivery data.

The entire architectural lighitng system is controlled by the building automation system. The system not only supplies information about the status of the plant but also provides information on the economical maintenance of the plant. The various sequences of the lighting system are programmed by a Martin Maxxyz controller.