How Much Darkness Does a Landscape Need?
Studio DL joins the lighting design for the Landesgartenschau Rottweil 2028
A new pedestrian and cycling bridge will soon connect Rottweil’s historic city center directly to the Neckar valley below, for the first time. The valley itself is being returned to the river: renaturation of the Neckar, new paths through the old city moat, and open green space where infrastructure used to run. Studio DL has been commissioned to design the lighting for this landscape.
The bridge was the subject of a design competition decided in March 2024. The jury, chaired by Professor Jörg Aldinger, awarded first prize to the team of JOHANNES PELLKOFER Architektur (Mannheim) and MSIng Matthaei + Schotte Ingenieurgesellschaft (Stuttgart), describing their design as light and inviting architecture that fits the landscape below the old town with restraint. That same restraint now shapes the lighting concept.
How little light does a place actually need?
That is the question Studio DL started with. Not how to illuminate the valley, but how much darkness it can keep. The concept uses low, architecture-integrated light sources built into the bridge itself, and solar-powered bollard lights with motion sensors along the paths. The light color is amber. Fixtures are oriented so light never spills into the surrounding nature reserve. The lighting only switches on when someone is actually there to need it.
The result is not an absence of light, but a lighting plan built around orientation rather than illumination: enough to move safely through the valley at night, without treating darkness as something to be solved.
More about the project: So sieht Rottweils neue Gartenschau-Brücke aus – Landesgartenschau Rottweil 2028
Visualization courtesy of www.rw2028.de
Project team
Landscape architecture (framework plan): A24 Landschaft, Berlijn
Feasibility study: Planstatt Senner, Überlingen
Bridge architecture:: JOHANNES PELLKOFER Architektur (Mannheim) en MSIng Matthaei + Schotte Ingenieurgesellschaft (Stuttgart)
Lighting design: Studio DL
Project management: Micha Sonnenfroh, Gemeente Rottweil
Implementation: BW Grün (Baden-Württembergische Grün GmbH)
Render: Andreas Pflomm / plan b