Novo Nordisk headquarters wins Danish Lighting Award


4th February 2015

(Denmark) – Novo Nordisk’s new headquarters in Bagsværd has won the 2014 Danish Lighting Award.

The project, which features in the Feb / March issue of mondo*arc, is designed by Henning Larsen Architects in collaboration with lighting designer Grontmij’s Lighting Team.

Anne Bay, Jury Chairman and Director of the Danish Lighting Centre, commented: “The lighting is integrated and enhances the architecture and the building’s functions without drawing attention to itself.” Bay continued: “This project exemplifies the excellent developments in contemporary lighting design, where it is not the light itself that is eye-catching, but the architectural totality and the atmospheres that are created by the light.”

The lighting design was created in collaboration between Grontmij Lighting and Henning Larsen Architects. The new headquarters consist of two office buildings (NN1 and NN2). The design process focused on integrating the lighting and luminaires into the architecture. The lighting system was implemented using energy efficient light sources, including high-quality LEDs and luminaires that shield the light sources to avoid the visual discomforts of glare to the greatest extent possible.

Bay added: “The light is subtle because it highlights accurately the forms, functions and atmospheres that were planned by the architects. Both the totality and the details have been executed with rare precision and high visual comfort.” She continued: “The lighting quality and colours of light accentuate the materials, shapes and colours, and in the places where the lighting is meant to be uniform, it is evenly distributed.”

Amongst the advantages of LED lighting is the possibility to create white light in precise spectral compositions that are needed to emphasise a particular material or colour as best possible. Amongst the challenges is the risk of glare due to LEDs small and bright light diodes. In each building there is a central atrium with a unifying staircase that is surrounded by working and ancillary spaces. Each atrium is designed with its own skylight.

Both skylights have customised coloured LED lighting that accentuates the two very different architectural spaces in refined and evocative ways. The colours are discreet, and in the situations where the lighting is dynamic, the colours of light are composed in a natural colour spectrum, ranging from deep petrol blue to warm ochre orange. The lighting has been programmed in slow and poetic rhythms that are experienced over time.

www.grontmij.com