On the bright side: ENDLIGHT

The fact that life tends to take place in spaces where there is light has been an architectural principle since antiquity. Inspired by the gatherings in the Greek agora, the market place, the atrium became the main element of the Roman villa. It took the form of a light-filled, partly covered inner courtyard opening up to all the surrounding spaces and acting as a centre for communal activities.

If we sit under the glass-roof of the bright, atmospheric lobby of the Atrium Plaza today and admire the architectural interplay of transparency and light, it becomes all the more evident what probably inspired the ancient Romans to create this structure. This lively market square in the middle of Frankfurt's financial district reinterprets light and its architectural possibilities, applying the professional expertise of ENDLIGHT to transform it into a work of art.

With its strict formal idiom, the cubist structure designed by Jens Bothe, Kai Richter and Hadi Teherani has been part of the imposing edifices of Frankfurt's banking district and the neighbouring Europaviertel since 2003. When its owner, Deka Immobilien Investment GmbH, decided 13 years later to transform the seemingly self-contained office building into an open multi-tenant facility, it commissioned the prestigious architectural firm of Pischulti + Münchenberg to carry out the project.

The results are impressive. Thanks to their cooperation with ENDLIGHT, the Atrium Plaza now radiates atmospheric light and a new splendour. For more than 20 years, the Dortmund-based company has been developing, producing and installing innovative lighting solutions of every size and level of technical complexity.

‘We make sure that a building has an aura,’ says Jürgen Endrigkeit with pride. After all, he has already illuminated major works of architecture ranging from the Barberini Museum in Potsdam to the Heiliggeistkirche in Basle. The lighting specialist also designed custom-made lamps and impressive installations for the Atrium Plaza, with the aim of reinterpreting the building and contributing to the well-being of its occupants.

Visitors are welcomed at the entrance by a towering, six-metre-high tunnel of light which accompanies them through the hallway with the colour and intensity of natural lighting, creating the impression that they are bathed in warm sunlight.

Both the ceiling and the side walls of the tunnel are equipped with high-quality Tunable White LED lighting along their entire length. This distributes the light behind the milky white safety glass evenly and without glare, creating a warm and pleasant atmosphere. It is part of the ENDLIGHT vision that the light source should always be aesthetically and effectively showcased.

After this illuminating, enlightening stroll through the entrance hall, visitors reach the reception desk, whose curved form is reflected in the correspondingly shaped chrome-look lamp. This canopy of light seems to hover, cloud-like over the counter, providing not only a striking visual effect, but an atmospheric and sound-dampening one also.

Arriving in the atrium, the eponymous heart of the Plaza, a glass courtyard opens up and reveals small gardens, terraces, seating and a deliberately arranged interplay of daylight and artificial lighting – each of them an invitation to linger. An ideal spot for this is the café, where eight chrome-plated ring lights of different sizes with integrated sections of fabric create a harmonious ambience.

Aristotle was well aware of the fact that the whole is often more than just the sum of its parts. In the revitalised Atrium Plaza, this dictum can be experienced with all the senses. ‘It's been my observation that the importance of light as a design element is on the increase’, confirms Jan Münchenberg. For the architect, this is a very welcome trend.

However, when it comes to optimal interaction between all aspects of the construction work in order to form a unified whole, it is important to have an experienced partner such as ENDLIGHT on board. The company combines design flair and electro-technical expertise at the highest level. In addition to offering customised 'on demand' production, the company continues to develop both its standard products and its entire brand characteristics, all for the purpose of creating a simple and elegant identity which focuses on the essentials – just like light itself, which, as an elementary dimension of architecture, has influenced our emotions and vitalised our rooms for millennia.

One wonders what Aristotle and the ancient Romans would say about the new Atrium Plaza…

© Architonic