Lighting Replacement:
Architecture in the Spotlight

In 2023, the lighting system in the Kunsthaus Bregenz will be comprehensively renewed for the first time since the building’s construction over twenty-five years ago. The fluorescent tubes previously used are no longer produced. The project was realized with support from the responsible departments of the State of Voralberg. From February 20 to March 31, 2023, the KUB Building Services staff together with an electropartner will replace the previous lighting fixtures in the entire building with LEDs. On the four above-ground floors alone, 660 lamps will be refitted, along with

the illuminants in the escape routes and basement floors. Thanks to these measures, the Kunsthaus Bregenz will be able to save more than fifty percent of the electricity previously consumed by the lighting system. Whereas the lamps previously had to be fitted with two thirty-six-watt fluorescent tubes each, now a single LED light source per lamp is sufficient, which at twenty-six watts requires only thirty-six percent of the previous energy. The wear and tear is also lower, since the LEDs contain fewer technical components. Peter Zumthor’s internationally unique lighting concept and the soft indirect lighting of the exhibition rooms will be retained after the modernization. For this purpose, a special LED lamp was developed that is precisely adapted to KUB’s exhibition operations. These new special LED lamps are a product of Zumtobel Lighting GmbH. The Voralberg-based lighting pioneer with headquarters in Dornbirn was awarded the contract following an international call for bids. The new lighting system continues the course of our ongoing modernization and energy-saving measures: the energy system has already been gradually optimized in recent years, including a heat buffer that stores the waste heat from the cooling unit.

The new heat pumps have been in operation since the beginning of September 2022. Together with the collector storage wall in the underground, they are part of a so called “component-activated system”that can now be used in the best possible way. The energy from the collector wall will increasingly be used for cooling and heating as well as regulating humidity. The heat can be distributed via a finely adjustable regulator. This sophisticated storage system and efficient heat exchange ensure that the exhibition rooms have optimal conditions for the works of art on display throughout the year. The gas heating system, which has also been renewed, will in the future only be used for the administration building in extreme winter temperatures.