Dresden | Rathaus

Dresden Rathaus | Lichtplanung für die Gebäudebeleuchtung

Dresden City Hall, with its historic City Hall Tower, represents a piece of the famous city skyline. The fourto five-story, sandstone-clad structure is a mixture of Neo-Renaissance, Art Nouveau and Neo-Baroque styles. It has five courtyards and a 100-meter-high tower topped by the golden Town Hall Man. He symbolizes the patron saint Hercules, who points over the city with his right arm and pours out the cornucopia over the city with his left arm.

On February 13 and 14, 1945, Dresden was almost completely destroyed in World War II and the town hall was heavily damaged. Reconstruction began in 1948 in a simplified form. The statue of the Trümmerfrau (Rubble Woman), which has stood in front of the New Town Hall since 1952, is intended to commemorate the many women who removed the millions of tons of rubble after the war. The Golden Gate was also restored. It consists of four gilded lattice doors, in front of which two bronze lions are enthroned. Above them, after the war, several coats of arms of the cities that experienced a similar fate as Dresden during the war were placed on the facade of the town hall.

Since 1979, the New Town Hall has been considered a monument of city planning, architecture and today also a monument of reconstruction. The redevelopment of the New Town Hall is therefore a revitalization in which the historical building fabric was only changed to the extent possible while still protecting the historical elements and yet allowing for contemporary use.

In the summer of 2009, planning for the renovation began. This unique building, with its public location, necessitated an overarching lighting design. The architectural firm Winkels und Partner, International Light Architects, had already created a lighting master plan in 2008, which gave specifications for Studio DL’s new lighting design for light color and intensity. During the analysis for the lighting master plan, it was realized that the New City Hall was not perceptible in silhouette view at night. For the buildings, which are primarily constructed of Elbe sandstone, the master plan recommended a warm light color for the facades. The shape of the building as seen from the banks of the Elbe is
already included in the Dresden Light Master Plan. The city planning office additionally described the front facade as the most important view and aimed for a new lighting design.

Studio DL first refined and further developed the simplified 3D model of the city to create the design. Textures were adjusted and the accuracy of the facades was revised. Mounting positions, intensities and aesthetics could thus be shown, discussed and agreed upon in the 3D model. After a few appointments, the large committee was successfully
convinced of the design.

The lighting elements further away from the building were retained in a reduced form for the large roof areas. The lighting close to the building was coordinated with the Department for the Protection of Historical Monuments. It emphasizes the structure of the building. The window niches of the ballroom wing were planned with cool white LEDs in order to accentuate the individual window cassettes by differentiating from the warm color used on the facade. The luminaires for the arcades were refurbished and now give the base area of the building a warm white, atmospheric incandescent light. This warm light color interacts excellently with the golden color of the lattice doors of the Golden Gate designed by Karl Groß. The City Hall tower was staged with the latest lighting technology and the clock backlighting was also revitalized. Since the side facing facades are less characteristic of the cityscape, only the balconies and ledges were highlighted here, and the facade was brightened by lights on poles set back from the building.

Through cooperation with ILB Dr. Rönitzsch GmbH, who were responsible for the construction supervision and the planning for implementation, the goal aimed at in the design was achieved. The New City Hall can be clearly perceived in the darkness in the city skyline and from close up the structure and architectural atmosphere of the building is well
communicated.