Indulux 93

Lighting the way

Increased safety with ABB emergency lighting in world’s most sustainable building

How do you combine increased safety with low energy consumption in the ultimate design setting? The Edge - the world’s most sustainable building, located in Amsterdam, the Netherlands - sets a contemporary standard in emergency lighting with Guideway from ABB’s solutions for emergency lighting. The lighting’s green pictogram plates are highly visible in daylight, whilst their powerful LED lights save 57 percent on energy compared to standard fluorescent tubes. Although the pictogram plate may be striking, its design keeps things low key. The frameless Guideway blends with the environment. That's the power of ABB emergency lighting. It only draws attention when it needs to.

The use of large glass walls in contemporary architecture is setting new requirements in terms of escape route signalisation. In daylight, the legend plate has to be clearly visible so building users see the fastest way out in case of an emergency. ABB’s Guideway escape route signalisation illuminates the pictogram plate with a light of 500 cd/m². To put that in context, an average desktop LCD has a luminance of 200 to 300 cd/m².

Focus on design
In December 2014, The Edge received the highest ever score from BREEAM-NL (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology). The building got an outstanding rating with the highest-ever score of 98.4 percent [1]. Such highly rated environmental credentials naturally required an emergency lighting solution to match and that is where Guideway came in.

Increased safety
Deloitte's project manager for The Edge, Tim Sluiter, said “This building is very transparent, built with clean lines and sophisticated materials, which means there was no place to hide a thick bumpy luminaire /2. We needed nice, well-designed luminaires that suited our vision for the building. We have the large atrium and open skywalks - big open spaces that are also very light, with ambient daylight or reflections hampering the visibility of the escape route. We eventually decided on the Guideway luminaire, with its very flat, thin plate and thin steel frame. But Guideway's distinctive quality is that it is very easy to see. If you're on one side of the skywalk, then you can look all the way over to the other side, where the sign can be clearly seen. It goes without saying that this luminaire meets all the regulatory requirements and can clearly be seen from 32 metres away. At Deloitte, health and safety are naturally an important starting point, since our people are our capital. So we must treat them with care.  Emergency lighting is obviously a big part of that.”

Cost reductions
The pictogram plate emits an even and strong illumination across the entire surface thanks to powerful LED technology. This results in a 57 percent saving in terms of energy and maintenance over a 12-year period in comparison with a fluorescent tube. The long lifespan of 100,000 hours reduces by 10 times the need to replace the light source over a 12-year period.