The Royal Netherlands Military Academy at the Castle of Breda

Built in the 12th century, the Castle of Breda is one of the city’s foremost landmarks. Over its long history, the Castle has served as a fortress, military barracks, a hospital and, since 1828, as the home of the Royal Netherlands Military Academy.

To maintain its ‘green’ image, the Dutch Ministry of Defense wanted to temporarily illuminate the historic castle for the holiday season with rich, lively colors and patterns, while keeping energy consumption to a minimum.

To achieve their design objective, the Dutch Ministry of Defense needed an energy-efficient light source that was powerful enough to brilliantly and dynamically illuminate the large structure. ColorReach Powercore (now specified with ReachElite) provided the ideal solution. This high-performance architectural LED floodlight can saturate an entire façade with a wash of color-changing light, while consuming only 290 W per luminaire. Compared to traditional metal halide light sources that consume over 700 W per fixture, Reach Powercore yields an energy savings of nearly 60%.

The lighting design, conceptualized by Jurgen Bal and Michael Sebregts of livingprojects, aimed to illuminate two sides of the castle’s façade. Just ten Reach Powercore luminaires were needed for the entire installation. Each luminaire was mounted on a specially constructed bracket, which was designed by LED rental company ledhuren. The front of the 60 x 15 m (197 x 49 ft) castle required just four ColorReach Powercore luminaires, spaced 15 m (33 ft) apart. The flank of the castle, at 95 x 15 m (312 x 49 ft), required six luminaires, spaced 15 m (49 ft) apart.

To ensure that the light reached the entire surface of the structure, the lighting designers took advantage of the luminaire's unique split design by specifying different spread lenses for each half of the luminaire. A 63° lens was used on the top half of each Reach Powercore luminaire, and a 40° lens was used on the bottom half.

Light shows ranged from static color to color-changing effects, and ran from 5 PM until 9 AM daily throughout the holiday season. The installation was controlled with an iPlayer 3 show storage and playback device, and the light shows were authored with the included ColorPlay 3 software.

During the holiday season, residents and visitors alike could see the historic Castle of Breda in a new light, while keeping energy bills to a minimum.