The Bella Sky Comwell Hotel, located in Copenhagen, Denmark, is not only an architecturally beautiful hotel; it is also one of the largest in Scandinavia with 23 floors, 812 rooms, and 30 conference rooms. With its 2011 grand opening quickly approaching, Arne Bang Mikkelsen, Executive Director of the Bella Center, decided that it would be best to publicize the hotel based on its unusual design, which was created by architects 3XN.
In order to draw attention to the new building, Mikkelsen wanted the building to be floodlit after dark, but he knew the lighting had to be just as unconventional as the building itself. He partnered with Comtech, a company that provides technical solutions for exhibitions, conferences, and festivals to create a plan to temporarily illuminate the exterior of the hotel.
Morten Topp, Comtech's key account manager, wanted the lighting to be as innovative as the building's design. After hearing about Color Kinetics ColorReach Powercore luminaires, he decided they would be the perfect fit. With light output of thousands of lumens and extended light projection, these powerful, full-color, exterior LED floodlights are specifically designed to evenly illuminate large exterior façades with millions of intensely saturated colors.
Time was an issue. Color Kinetics assured Topp that the luminaires would be there exactly when he needed them — which was soon. "Color Kinetics managed to deliver 18 fixtures at very short notice. Without them, we'd never have been able to put our idea into practice," said Topp.
Once the luminaires arrived, they were quickly installed to meet the imminent deadline. Two ColorReach Powercore luminaires (now specified with
ReachElite) were placed on each of the hotel's four end walls, and eight were used to light two of the façades. Two luminaires were also placed on either side of the bridge connecting the building's two towers. The hotel chose to have the fixtures display six colors. Each color was displayed for 30 seconds, with a seven second transition to the next color in the sequence.
Both Topp and Mikkelsen were thrilled with the results, and the installation proved to be just what the unique hotel needed for its promotion. "It's been a good investment: now everyone knows we're opening a quite extraordinary hotel," explained Mikkelsen.
