In June 2005 the shopping arcade "Schmuckwelten Pforzheim" opened its doors for the first time. The architecture and lighting design of the "Schmuckwelten", or "worlds of jewellery" is, as the name suggests, entirely dedicated to jewellery. A joint Franco-German collaborative project, this unique jewellery showcase right in the centre of "Goldstadt Pforzheim" only became a "lighting project" in the truest meaning of the phrase thanks to the inspiring artistry of Yann Kersalé from Vincennes and the lighting design of L-Plan Lichtplanung in Berlin.

Outside, the Sparkasse Pforzheim Calw office tower - which stands out above all in Pforzheim's town centre, being Pforzheim's first "skyscraper" - is visible for miles. At night though, the tower is not just visible thanks to its overwhelming size - it has been illuminated with more than 13,300 white monochrome LEDs over 52 vertical lighting axis.

The interior attraction is the ca. 86,000 RGB LEDs (LumiLEDs) used for the backlighting of around 1,000m² of glass surfaces on the ceiling and walls.

The latest lamps and state-of-the-art control technology create a new level of sophistication in the quality of the illumination and its various uses. The use of around 3,000 T5 luminous lamps was intended to fulfil the required minimum light intensity of 500 lux without the use of supplementary luminaires, which would have impacted negatively upon the interior architecture and striking interior atmosphere.

86,000 High Power LEDs in red, green and blue made it possible for the lighting to react flexibly to the lighting atmosphere in question, the differing colour temperatures and the colour of the light, permitting a zone-defining, dynamic lighting scheme.

Difficult choices were faced when implementing the lighting concept, as an extremely limited recess depth of just 200mm was available for luminaire mounting, creating another challenge for the designers and manufacturers to come up with a solution that created a harmonious blend of light from luminous lamps and coloured LEDs, all the while avoiding glare and reflections on the glass surfaces.

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