Administrative building: Design award winning PlanoCentro KNX presence detector
Flush-mounted, the "iF Award" award-winning PlanoCentro KNX kits in perfectly with the modern architecture of the Forum Holzbau. Constant light control optimises the performance of the climate-friendly low energy house.
Natural and artificial light
The Forum Holzbau is not just a multi-function building with meeting and office space. It houses the Association of Joiners and the Timber Trade in Baden-Wu?rttemberg (Verband des Zimmererund Holzbaugewerbes Baden-Wu?rttemberg e.V.) and eight other organisations from that sector. The modern architecture, the bold timber structure and climate-friendly energy plan of the 2011 building demonstrate the enormous potential of wood as a building material. You can smell and feel the wood here as all the interior surfaces are untreated. The optical impression comes alive through light: From natural light that fl oods the atrium during the day and from artifi cial light that accentuates the wood ambience at dusk and at night. PlanoCentro presence detectors are in demand here. Discreetly built into the wooden ceiling, they automatically switch the lighting from a decent basic brightness to comfortable light when someone enters the central hall and back when the room is vacated.
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| Daylight and artificial light accentuate the wooden decor. |
To frames for ceiling installation
The project was already underway when the Kienle Engineering Office became aware of the new KNX PlanoCentro with its super slim design and they recommended them as a late alternative to the planned surface-mounted detectors. Colour matching to the silver fir wooden ceiling was achieved with the silver-coloured version (ESR-A) and with white frames (EWH-A) for plastered ceilings. And the subsequent planning was straightforward: The large square detection area of the detector enabled symmetrical positioning in the ceiling without having to cut corners in terms of detection quality
Flexible for seminars
If people are present in the atrium, the detectors send a switch-on command to the bus at light levels below 150 lux. If someone briefly walks through, as in corridors and stairways, the briefpresence function prevents an unnecessarily long time delay. The presence detectors in the meeting rooms are also configured for constant light control. Artificial light then augments the daylight by the necessary difference to the required brightness setpoint value, which further reduces electricity consumption. As the rooms can be partitioned, a KNX contact enables the two PlanoCentro KNX devices to be switched from master/slave mode to individual mode when the dividing wall is closed. The presence detectors have to be overridden during meetings with visual presentations to prevent the light coming on when the room lights are dimmed. This is achieved using scene push buttons, which simultaneously close blinds, bring up the screen and switch on the projector. PlanoCentro KNX detectors also control the lighting in the toilets in the basement. A total of 23 presence detectors in the Forum Holzbau provide comfortable and energy-saving lighting. Moreover: The PlanoCentro won the "if design award" for product design in 2010.
Reference (pdf)
"Design award winning PlanoCentro KNX presence detector in state-of-the-art architecture"
Image source: Theben AG