Successful marriage between artificial lighting and daylight

Lighting was the decisive factor in the renovation of the Actio Zuid building on the Wageningen UR campus. Daylight and artificial lighting perfectly complement each other. This is especially obvious in the central atrium.  

Since 2001, the Actio Zuid building has housed several supporting services for the Wageningen University and Research Centre. When the general and technical services’ IT department was to move to this building as well, it quickly became obvious that a thorough renovation was called for.

From dark to bright 
“There were two major points of particular interest,” according to Nico Bijl of the Building and Housing Management department. “The windows in the outside facades allowed too little daylight to come through, as a result of which it was too dark inside. The internal layout – numerous small offices and conference rooms separated by partitions – also contributed to the cheerless, quite unimaginative effect.”

The building’s renovation had to be in keeping with an adjacent newbuild and was designed by the same architects: Elemans van den Hork architects from Oss and CBRE Design from Amsterdam. Light and openness were the key words here. Daylight was brought in through large skylights and glass panels in the facades. The small, compartmentalised spaces made room for an open-plan office.

User panel opts for ETAP 
No matter how much daylight entered the building as a result of this renovation, good artificial lighting was still essential of course. “The lighting had to be energy-efficient, but also fit into the interior design,” Nico Bijl clarified. “In order to leave nothing to chance he had various lighting solutions assessed by a user panel.”

The panel chose ETAP’s energy-efficient LED+LENS™ luminaires. ELS daylight sensors in the luminaires on the window sides ensure that artificial lights are automatically dimmed when there is sufficient natural light.

LEDs have the longest service life  
The building’s eye-catcher is the central atrium, a light and airy space that connects the ground floor to the top floor. It was critical to have sufficient light even during dark periods. For the skylights, the architect developed a construction for which ETAP delivered R7 luminaires with asymmetric lenses, which direct the light exactly where you want it. Since the location is difficult to access, the service life of the light source was an important consideration. A Lamp Lumen Maintenance Factor (LLMF) of no less than 99% LLMF after 50,000 burning hours was therefore an additional benefit of the ETAP luminaires.

Project data  
- 75 x U722/LEDN2430DE
- 99 x U722/LEDN2430S
- 8 x R720/LEDN3645SX1
- 6 x Kardó line with T5-ecolamps