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Sumit Singhal
Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination. Transmitting Concrete in floor application, London, United Kingdom by LUCEM LichtbetonDecember 17th, 2013 by Sumit Singhal
Article source: LUCEM Lichtbeton First floor finished in entrance lobby of a London City office building Light transmitting concrete is known since more then 80 years now and provides – still mostly in the stage of an idea – a lot of attraction to architects, designers and building owners all over the world. Due to thousands of optical fibers embedded into the concrete, daylight or artificial light pass easily through the concrete panels in any thickness.  Image Courtesy © LUCEM Lichtbeton
 Image Courtesy © LUCEM Lichtbeton The objects made with LUCEM light transmitting concrete, such as facades, furniture or separation walls begin to glow and shine. In the past, light transmitting concrete have been made manually, resulting in high prices and low quantity capacities.  Image Courtesy © LUCEM Lichtbeton The Germany based LUCEM GmbH finally developed a patented production process in early 2011, which allows to increase productivity and lower prices significantly. Prices now (early 2014) are in the range of 250-500 EURO/sqm depending from thickness and quantity.  Image Courtesy © LUCEM Lichtbeton Thus, LUCEM becomes a supplier in more and more projects in interior and exterior applications worldwide. The latest development is the use of LUCEM as a flooring material. A currently finished project with a combined floor and wall application is located in the City of London, UK.  Image Courtesy © LUCEM Lichtbeton Light transmitting concrete opens a wide field of completely new approaches in design concepts. The special feature of LUCEM FLOORING material is the combination of the „natural stone look“ – representing and providing high strength and massivity and the light transmission representing, transparency, design and friendlyness.  Image Courtesy © LUCEM Lichtbeton Without light, the LUCEM floor panels appear as elegant natural stone panels, but illuminated, the panels seem to glow and due to the conical shaped light effect of each fiber the light seems to be brighter the more the viewer is above the single panel. It seems, as if the there is a spotlight following the viewer. In the mentioned London project, LUCEM comes as wall cladding and floor panels at the same time. The wall panels are installed similar to natural stone facade claddings with undercut anchors and a special LED light panel. The LED panel can be realised in 8-15 mm thickness depending from requirements like colorchanging or water proof design. By using very efficient LED stripes, the energy consumption is relatively low. Next to the use of white LEDs also RGB (red-green-blue) LED chips can be used to allow computer controlled colorchanging effects. In comparison to the wall cladding, the floor applications require more load bearing capacities of each panel. Therefore LUCEM panels have to be installed in 30 – 40 mm thickness and a maximum format of 60 cm x 60 cm. The substructure has to be designed in a way, that the LUCEM panels are placed on a frame on all sides or in case of using flat light solutions being beared on a flat ground panel. LUCEM wall panels can be used in 20-30 mm thickness and in maximum formats of 150 x 60 cm. Projects, which have been realised with LUCEM by famous architectural practises are placed all over the world from Germany to Georgia, Russia, United Arab Emirates, USA and many more. Together with Rem Kolhaas practise OMA in Rotterdam a project in Doha, Qatar has been realised.  Image Courtesy © LUCEM Lichtbeton
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Tags: London, United Kingdom Category: Office Building |
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