Lighting your way to the top

The lift as an entrance

Elevator technology has been perfected to such an extent that a ride in a lift has virtually no tangible side-effects. The elevator cabins, or cars, have become more compact to fit more effectively into buildings, but lighting can contribute towards rendering the dynamic quality of an elevator system more legible and enhancing the quality of the compact space as well as achieving more comfort for users.

At the World Exhibition in Brussels in 1958, visitors using the lifts to travel up to the spheres in the Atomium were exposed to an impressive spa- tial experience. The roof of the lift ca- bin was glazed and there were lumi- naires mounted on the cabin roof and directed upwards, allowing lift users to follow their journey upwards through the lift shaft. This kind of spatial experience is rare nowadays. When lifts were integrated into stair- wells, and the cabins allowed views of passing floors, the gradual journey up or down a building was visually evident. Later, when lifts became enclosed in lift shafts, and the walls of the cabin became solid and opaque, the visual perception of movement was limited to the display of the floor numbers.

Publications

• Elevators as Spaces Made of Light. In: Elevator world. Mobile USA 2008 July, p.108-111. Elevator world.
• Lighting your way to the top. Lighting concepts for lifts. In: Professional Lighting Design. Gütersloh 2007 Nov-Dec No. 58, p.42-45. Verlag für Innovationen in der Architektur.