The Orbit Facade
Noval Property commissioned Lianou Chalvatzis Architects and Vikelas Architects to create the epitome of a modern sustainable office complex.
This striking clean organic design has 9 floors and 6 basements and will be completed in August 2020.
Photo © Pygmalion Karatzas
The lighting of this building required the up-most care. The least amount of energy must be used to create the most homogeneous illumination of a building, the form of which features challenging compound curves. Architectural lighting is a derivative art form.
The illumination must be a celebration of the daylight form, extended into the dusk.
Fortunately, this challenge of illuminating The Orbit fell to lighting designer Thanos Danilof and his studio DANILOF light + visual perception. He was responsible for a cradle to grave lighting exercise: Concept, Detailed and Final Design & Construction Supervision.
illumination Physics began work on the project in December 2018 . We are proud to have designed and engineered the custom lighting systems according to the specs of the lighting designer, and supplied the façade lighting for this project in conjunction with our partners in Greece, Luce Ataliotis.
At the very beginning of the project, illumination Physics received a very detailed lighting design concept document together with a full set of drawings from Danilof Studio.
All Photos © Pygmalion Karatzas
Danilof Studio also provided a detailed schedule listing the specification of the lighting equipment’s performance. This included LEDs that were to be binned according to MacAdam Step 2 at 4000K in singular binning. The dimming control of the fixtures must be flicker free when dimming from 100% to zero. The brief made it clear that custom optics would be required to achieve even wash. Anti-glare protection was required for visual comfort and custom housings for the fixtures with adjustable aiming.
Photo © Pygmalion Karatzas
illumination Physics developed special custom fixtures for The Orbit.
The main fixture is the IP Linear Series, Linear Graze Mono 6/7.2 W DC/CV – DMX. It is a glare-free light source intended to illuminate the soffit of the expressed transom above, from the deck of the transom feature below, in the majority of the applications. The fixture is small: 25 mm wide and 300 mm long.
There was a constant dialogue with Thanos Danilof and Luce during all of the technical design stages. Effective, inspired and rewarding. illumination Physics co-founding partner, Peter Kemp, and the company’s European Manager, Martin Opolka, conducted the on-site liaison, visiting the site three times with the lighting designer and Luce Ataliotis (Hellas) Ltd – illumination Physics’ partner for Greece and Cyprus. Hong-Kong based co-founding partner, Simon McCartney, conducted all of our factory liaison during the design and testing process.
Photo © Pygmalion Karatzas
No compromises were made at The Orbit. The lighting design and technical execution were perfectly aligned. The luminaires were quickly created to do exactly what was required of them.
The entire team possessed a great will to excel, and through agility, inspiration and a great depth of experience, this complex exercise in pure white lighting was delivered as promised. The Orbit is the freshest new landmark in Athens.
Lighting Design: DANILOF light + visual perception studioLead Lighting Designer: Athanassios / Thanos Danilof
“Dear Lefteris, many thanks for your kind words and congratulations to you too and everyone involved: Nikos and George in Athens for their consistency and professionalism, Peter, Martin and their team at illumination Physics in Hong Kong for their agility and precision, and Dimos of course for his perfectionism and great skills on site”.
- Thanos Danilof.
“My thanks to all of the illumination Physics and Luce team for the great contribution to this highly successful project”.
- Lefteris Ataliotis.
illumination Physics are honoured that The Orbit was featured on the cover of arc Magazine (arc Oct/Nov 2020 - Issue 118).
arc has also written an in-depth editorial on The Orbit which can be found on pages 44-52.