The Tower of Durlach is situated on the highest point of the city of Karlsruhe. Standing on the Tower Hill it becomes an important point of orientation and identification of the city, seen from afar.
The former flood lighting polluted the sky and the surrounding nature. Thus the new lighting concept was focused on the facades only. The structure of the building should become better perceivable, by using two different light colours for the middle tower and its annex. While the Tower should be illuminated with 2.500K, the annex should be spotlit with 3.000K. The light should illuminate the facades of all directions, being perfectly cut out and thus defined on the facade surface only. This is achieved with the help of Gobo-technology. It functions like a diascope, with an image template made of glass (so-called Gobo), which borders the light onto the building’s facade only.
The spotlighting is absolutely direct and without any useless light pollution. Thus the total connected load could be highly minimized, compared to the illumination before, even though the new lighting concept uses more luminaires. The light is projected directly and absolutely precisely onto the facade; there is no light pollution for the surrounding nature or living spaces and even windows could be put into shadow. The invisible light source creates no glare at all for pedestrians visiting the tower.
Seen from afar the clear image of the tower emerges from today’s night view of the hill. With the innovative renovation of the illumination of the Tower of Durlach, the city of Karlsruhe won a national competition for energy-efficient city illumination.
