The new office building of VMA: a showroom for custom-made lighting

Confidence in Multiline’s custom-made lighting

“We set the bar very high for the lighting of our new offices,”, Alex explains. “We wanted functional luminaires that not only look nice, but could also be integrated into a climate ceiling. Custom-made lighting was our best option considering the dimensions and colours we required. The combination of all these needs led us to Multiline. We knew we could count on the quality of their custom-made products as we had already done several special projects together, such as the library De Krook in Ghent. After our first meeting, they immediately created the entire lighting plan based on the ceiling plan. As a result, they quickly gained our full confidence for the rest of the project.”

Demo center for our customers

“The goal was to turn our new office building into a real showroom,” Alex continues. “We want to show our customers all the current possibilities with lighting and technology. Most of the luminaires have a dual function. In the stairwells, we combine general lighting with emergency lighting. In the entrance hall and corridors, we provide both tunable white and RGB lighting. Furthermore, tunable white is also available in the offices.”

“We apply tunable white lighting in a Human Centric Lighting concept. This entails that the lighting simulates the colour temperature and intensity of sunlight throughout the day. Fully automatically controlled with daylight sensors. Human Centric Lighting stimulates our natural biorhythm and thus creates a more pleasant working environment. The concept is not completely new, but it is the first time we have applied it on this scale ourselves.”

Great attention to ease of installation

“The custom-made features of Multiline’s products go further than just the luminaire. They also pay a lot of attention to ease of installation in the development of their lighting solutions. The bottom of the luminaires had to be in line with the base of the climate ceiling. Our first thought was to use pendant luminaires with steel wires for adjustment. In that case however, it would take a lot of time to adjust each luminaire separately. As a solution, Multiline developed a bracket that we could easily attach to the ceiling structure. With this bracket, it was child’s play to get the luminaire nicely in line with the ceiling.”

“For the corridors, Multiline even had a meeting with the ceiling builder in order to find the best mounting method for the luminaires. If you want to suspend the custom-made luminaires, you normally have to remove some of the LED boards, mount the profile and then click the LED boards back in. In this case, Multiline made it possible to use Wieland connectors to link the profiles along the top. This makes installation much easier. Another advantage of custom-made lighting! If you choose standard luminaires, such solutions would never be possible.”

Blue ambient light

“The luminaires in the entrance hall and corridors also have a dual function,” Alex concludes. “During the day we use tunable white lighting. When everyone has left the office, we switch to blue ambient light. In combination with the LED strips incorporated in the facade, the building is enveloped in a blue glow. The same shade of blue as the colour of our logo. Just another extra touch that makes our building recognisable in the surrounding area.”