Hull-based plastics manufacturing specialist Ino-Plaz lit up the Almere Shopping Centre in The Netherlands. The company was commissioned by architectural lighting specialist Kemps to get involved with an exciting and challenging lighting project for the shopping mall which is one of the largest in The Netherlands.
The brief was to produce 52 light swirls to be suspended from the ceiling on the side of the escalators and around the perimeter bulkhead. Each individual light swirl was specified at 120mm deep and the project involved creating eleven individual swirl structure designs, ranging from two metres to seven metres in length.
Quality was paramount to Ino-Plaz as they needed to produce the lenses using a material that was reliable, resilient and long lasting. Taking into account the unique requirements for this highly specialised solution, Ino-Plaz recommended Paperlinx Altuglas 25mm Clear Acrylic as the best product for this particular application. The Paperlinx range of Altuglas Acrylics features constant light transmission which means colours appear the same, irrespective of how thick the sheet is and whether they are illuminated or non-illuminated.
Each lighting swirl was hand sanded to a frosted finish on three sides then mitred where needed to join the multiple sections, creating the longer swirls. Operations Manager Tim Loft explained the rationale behind this approach: “If you shine bright light through a clear Acrylic it doesn’t break the surface; frosting it - which we did by hand - diffuses the light better.”
The lenses created by Ino-Plaz were then retro-fitted into the lighting units supplied by Kemps and installed on site to create a striking and visually impressive display across the mall’s two floors.
“We were delighted with the representation and superior illumination of the finished product,” said Tim. “We identified that the best product for this application was PaperlinX Altuglas which would meet the exact requirements of a very specific brief. We needed a strong, durable material with excellent illumination properties and Paperlinx perfectly matched our requirements as it is also easy to thermoform and fabricate.”
