The following is a press release from the Amsterdam-based firm UNStudio and the Wevelgem, Belgium–based lighting manufacturer Delta Light announcing the launch of their collaboration Soliscape.
UNStudio and Delta Light join forces to create Soliscape – a versatile light and soundscape system designed to create optimum conditions for wellbeing
UNStudio and Delta Light have joined forces to endeavour to improve the wellbeing of people in our rapidly changing work environments, where human health has become a primary focus for employers.
Together we are developing Soliscape, an extremely versatile and flexible system, specifically designed to create human-centric environments. Soilscape is a flexible system that allows for the personalisation and customisation of light and acoustic conditions in individual workplaces.
Courtesy UNStudio and Delta Light
Ben van Berkel: “The way we work, live and relax is changing. This new hybrid world is causing architects and designers to rethink how we design our cities and buildings, so that we can create places that encourage health and wellbeing. Lighting is a very crucial element in helping us to create such places.”
In a given location and from focused work to group presentations, the Soliscape (sound and light-scape) system makes possible activity-based illumination, alongside acoustic qualities. A sensor-based environment understands what kind of activity is taking place and adjusts to provide the optimum conditions. As such, digitally enhanced environments can be created where technology supports in the creation of sensorial adaptive environments in which the user is central.
The Soliscape system is however not limited to work spaces alone. Due to its adaptable configuration possibilities, the system has a broad range of applications and can also be used in hotels, hospitality, retail and public spaces. The system can be configured to best suit the daily needs and programming of each location. In addition, more than ever before, today’s spaces are evolving to operate with hybrid functions; the home and office are blending, hospitality spaces are becoming meeting places. The possibility to adapt lighting and acoustic landscapes for dual or multi-purpose use is thus an added quality for many of these spaces.
Courtesy UNStudio and Delta Light
Peter Ameloot: “Looking at lighting as just a basic necessity is an outdated approach. Work environments in particular require extra attention, where user-centric lighting has proven to considerably boost productivity and wellbeing. With Soliscape we even take it to the next level, not just by adding acoustic elements, but even more so by using behavioural parameters to further upgrade comfort.”
Toolbox
The Soliscape system is a toolbox of flexible components and modules for architects and designers that will enable them to create workable and liveable solutions for their projects; a system that combines lighting with acoustics and connected sensoring, into an aesthetically appealing solution that can easily connect to any building management system. The system is also flexible and future-proof, as it allows for new materials and functions to be added in the future.
Ben van Berkel: “Numerous environmental factors directly affect our wellbeing and our health, including light, sound, scent, air quality and temperature. With the Soliscape system, we have combined two of these facets – sound and light – to create sensory ‘interior landscapes’ that can support people in their daily activities. Soliscape can also connect to systems already in place to improve the other key environmental factors.”
Courtesy UNStudio and Delta Light
The Soliscape system comes with spot, direct and indirect linear lighting elements, featuring Delta Light’s Melanopic Light Technology® (MLT), combining high-efficient reflectors with human-centric LED technology. The high-quality LEDs help control the circadian rhythm by providing a very natural white colour with a higher amount of energy in cyan, helping to encourage activity during the day and sleep at night. The reflector is designed to perfectly embrace every individual LED module in order to boost the efficiency of the complete luminaire, while maintaining a high level of visual comfort, as every LED dot is shielded.
Adaptive design
The intention is to create flexible lightscapes that are responsive to the user’s ever-changing needs and activities, where design is no longer imposed by the designers, but guided by the user, resulting in responsive and adaptive design. The Soliscape system combines miniaturisation and personalisation, in a unique design language.
Peter Ameloot: “Presenting a lighting system that is not just highly functional but also appealing to its environment, is a key aspect for us as well. Both the UNStudio and Delta Light teams collaborated on the design details, such as placing the module connection on the top of the profile to maintain a smooth appearance from below, the way the acoustic panels can move, or keeping it adaptive to position the different modules on either side of the profile.”
Courtesy UNStudio and Delta Light
Sensorial responsive
UNStudio and Delta Light aim to create sensor-based environments that respond, learn and adjust to people’s daily activities, taking smart buildings towards responsive architecture through a system that allows people intuitive control and personalisation of space. Soliscape offers different sensoring options enabling the creation of human-centric spaces: light in service to wellbeing.
Ben van Berkel: “We believe that human health and wellbeing form the impetus for a new era of design, and that the incorporation of new and emerging technologies in the built environment plays a central role in this. It is not the hardware or the software itself that interests me, but how it can be applied within architecture and urban design to improve our daily lives.”
Peter Ameloot: “Soliscape’s ability to connect with other automated processes in a building can really make an important difference, both for the user and the owner. If the surrounding systems allow for connection and communication, Soliscape can make that happen and create a behavior-responsive grid.”
Humanising spaces
Humanising spaces involves investigating behavioural science. Soliscape influences the productivity and wellbeing of users by allowing more intuitive control of their spaces in a scenario-based development. The system enables the user to adapt the lighting and surrounding factors in order to optimise working conditions. The Soliscape system is about optimising visual performance with visual comfort and the quality of the environment. It responds to multiple contextual variables and activity based actions, thereby upgrading the overall sense of space.
Comprehensive
Soliscape combines individual functions into one all-encompassing system, offering a more affordable and efficient tool to work with. Aside from the affordability of the single component, affordability is created through the scalability of the system, where products couple with services.
Sustainability
Soliscape has basic framing elements, but allows for a variety of complementary circular materials to expand its look and feel. More than 60% of the material in the acoustic panels comes from recycled PET bottles, however different materials can be used within the system to facilitate specific functionalities, from acoustic to decorative to atmospheric. Furthermore, controlled and smart lighting contributes to the overall energy efficiency of the building.