With corporate showmanship and architectural one-upmanship being what they are, newly-built company headquarters are often lavish affairs. The Edge in Amsterdam is no different. Not only is it good looking sustainably-designed, but its lighting does more than just brighten up a room.
The Edge, designed by PLP Architects, will be the new shared headquarters of Deloitte and AKD. It is located in the Zuidas area of Amsterdam and provides 40,000 sq m (430,000 sq ft) of office space. Offices look down in to a gaping 15-story atrium and 60 percent of the offices in the building receive natural light through north-facing windows. Workers benefit from access to public transport, a high-speed rail link and the cycle route network. There are also 500 bicycle parking spaces on-site.
According to Philips, which is working on The Edge, the building has achieved Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology (BREEAM) Outstanding certification. The certification recognizes that best practice has been used to ensure that the building is designed, constructed and operated to the high sustainability standards.
As part of its BREEAM accreditation, the building uses Philips connected lighting system for offices. Gizmag visited Philips at its high-tech campus in Eindhoven where the office lighting system was demonstrated. The system employs LED instead of conventional luminaires, which Philips says will make the lighting in the building 80 percent more efficient. In addition, the system is powered using Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) technology, which is also able to transmit data.
This added functionality means that the system can be controlled and monitored to a far greater extent that traditional lighting systems. Bulb lifespan and faults can be tracked, meaning that the infrastructure can be updated and maintained as is required. Office workers, meanwhile, can control the lighting using their mobile devices. The brightness of individual lights can be adjusted to a worker's preference and different lighting "profiles" can be activated to foster, for example, focus or calmness.
Additional sensors are embedded into the lights to take advantage of the data transmission capabilities. The sensors are able to capture anonymous data about carbon dioxide levels, temperature and humidity. Facility managers can then look at building utilization and energy usage in historical and real-time views. Rooms or floors could be left closed or uncleaned if they are shown to not be used on certain days and carbon dioxide levels can be used to indicate room occupancy at any given time.
The system will also provide a means of way-finding inside the building. The lights transmit encoded data to the device to enable identification of each light fixture within the building. Users can find out where they are within the building by training their mobile device on a lighting unit using a mobile app. The app can then direct a user to their desired destination.
The installation of Philips connected lighting system for offices at The Edge is expected to be completed in the last quarter of this year.
The video below provides an introduction to the use of the system at the Edge.
Source: Philips
