New light in Frankfurt’s Städel

In the Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main, over 1000 new LED luminaires cast the paintings of the Old Masters in a new light – with significantly reduced power consumption. Thanks to an ingenious lighting concept, daylightis also directed into the interior rooms

After more than a year of renovation work on the “Old Masters” collection rooms in Frankfurt’s Städel Museum, the 400 or so works of art from the 14th to 18th centuries on display now appear in a new light – thanks to completely new lighting. The aim of those responsible for the museum, Zumtobel Group AG and the Darmstadt-based architecture and exhibition design firm Bach Dolder, was to improve the visual and spatial effect and visually enhance the side cabinets.Katja Hilbig, Head of Exhibition Services, summarizes the project: “We wanted to achieve a good mix of daylight and artificial light – while finely balancing conservational and atmospheric requirements.”

New light: around a third less energy consumption

The new LED lighting concept should also help to save around a third of the lighting energy. Where previously numerous spotlights accentuated individual works, today daylight-like artificial light ceilings provide comprehensive room lighting. The museum also saves costs thanks to the lower maintenance requirements: instead of 20 to 25 spotlights per cabinet, today only selected spotlights supplement the wide-area ceiling light. More than 1100 meters of TECTON continuous-row system luminaires now illuminate the skylight halls. They backlight the striking glass skylights and ensure a uniform lighting level – depending on the natural outside light.

Lighting adapted to the outside light

Visitors will be able to tell whether the day is cloudy or the sun is shining. However, they will never be completely in the dark: a daylight sensor – controlled by the LUXMATE lighting management system – ensures this. At 5000 Kelvin, the TECTON luminaires imitate natural daylight white. “In the past, the trend was to illuminate showrooms in a rather cool way,” explains Katja Hilbig. “But we noticed that our visitors didn’t like that,” says the museum employee. In the cabinets without daylight, the museum has installed the versatile OMEGA PRO2 LED panel luminaire from the Thorn range of lighting experts. Around 800 individual luminaires form a coherent luminous ceiling that impresses with tunableWhite technology, a particularly good color rendering index of CRI 90 and a low overall height.

Sophisticated system in Frankfurt

SUPERSYSTEM II LED spotlights and the projector spotlight from Zumtobel’s portfolio are used in the cabinets. In the museum’s high halls, ARCOS III zoomfocus spotlights from Zumbtobel create subtle accents. In order to provide museum visitors with an unadulterated aesthetic experience, the Zumtobel team tested the optimum setting for each artwork. “We also used optical attachments, such as oval markers,” reveals Jens Lohse from Zumtobel.

Perfect light color: between warm white and daylight white

The experts used a Bluetooth wireless interface to set the appropriate light color in the range between 2,700 K (warm white) and 6,500 K (daylight white). This prevents gold leaf, for example, from acquiring a pinkish tinge. However, the corridor of color nuances that the museum actually uses is very limited, admits Katja Hilbig: “An important quality is that our visitors don’t even notice the different settings.”