Confex Kölnmesse 

A major step towards the future for Cologne as a trade fair location: on the former site of Hall 1, the new Confex Conference Centre opened in June 2024. Designed by JSWD Architekten, the building impresses with its key figures: capacity for 6,200 guests, 22 halls, a glass façade with colonnades, and a 72-metre media screen spanning the entire width. The exterior lighting with post-top luminaires and projectors from WE-EF harmoniously integrates the building into its urban surroundings.

Lighting Design “from a Single Source”

Specialist planners such as ZWP Ingenieur-AG contributed to the successful execution of the project, handling lighting as part of the technical building equipment: “A great opportunity to design the interior and exterior lighting of this representative building from a single source,” recalls lighting designer Karl Maria Reger. In addition to the interiors and façade, this also included the forecourt of Confex, which sits on the table-like baseplate of the former Hall 1, bridging the railway tracks. An escape staircase provides access to the Rheinhallen and Staatenhaus on one side, and to the South Entrance of the exhibition grounds and Cologne Messe/Deutz station on the other. “The forecourt and stairways function as escape routes,” explains Reger: “Uniform illumination is therefore not only an aesthetic concern, but also a safety issue.” Client and architects agreed: a forest of low poles was out of the question. Instead, Reger opted for high-performance lighting points on just a few 9-metre poles – keeping the forecourt optimally usable and flexible. He specified WE-EF VFL500 series street and area lighting luminaires with asymmetric forward-throw light distribution. The building’s offset from the baseplate of the old Hall 1 gives the forecourt a complex shape, which Reger illuminated consistently by using various power ratings and mounting options: the backbone of the lighting solution are poles with VFL540 luminaires fitted with 24 LEDs each. Along the balustrade towards Messe/Deutz station, four poles are equipped with VFL540-SE side-entry luminaires with 36 LEDs, delivering sufficient illuminance for the stairways and lower traffic areas. Finally, four VFL530-SE side-mounted luminaires are recessed in ceiling pockets under the colonnade, projecting between the columns onto the forecourt.

No Two Poles Alike

All poles were customised for this project: some with the described brackets, others with additional service doors and modifications to accommodate emergency lighting modules, extra connections, or functions such as WLAN access points. Poles and luminaires are powder-coated in the custom colour Light Grey (RAL7035) to match the building. For the forecourt lighting, the planners chose warm white (3000 K), creating a contrast to the 4000 K interior lighting that shines outward through the transparent façade. This effect is reinforced by synchronised coloured lighting inside and on the façade. “At Confex we use coloured light accents to provide event hosts with corporate branding opportunities,” says Reger: “We reproduce these colours on the entrance columns – a signal visible far into the surrounding area.” For this, he positioned a total of 11 WE-EF FLC260-CC colour-changing projectors at the façade edges and column bases beneath the continuous LED mesh media installation. With their extremely narrow, downward-directed beams, they apply precise grazing light to the columns. Thanks to RGBW technology and DALI control, the colour tones can be perfectly synchronised with interior effects and media content on the LED screen. Staff can program and operate the system both inside via touch panels and outside via WLAN and tablet.

A Contribution to Sustainability

The highly efficient LED technology of the WE-EF luminaires also helps Confex achieve “Platinum” certification by the DGNB (German Sustainable Building Council). For the planners, the collaboration has proven successful: “WE-EF’s portfolio includes powerful colour-changing projectors with few real alternatives,” concludes lighting expert Karl Maria Reger, “and at the same time, there is a high degree of expertise and flexibility when it comes to project-specific modifications.”

Project Data:

Project: Conference and Exhibition Centre Confex, Cologne, https://koelncongress.de Client: Koelnmesse GmbH Architect: JSWD Architekten GmbH, Cologne Façade Design: Werner Sobek Stuttgart AG, Stuttgart Technical Building Equipment/Lighting Design: ZWP Ingenieur-AG, Cologne System Integrator: Seebacher GmbH, Bad Tölz Opening: June 2024 WE-EF Products used: FLC260-CC, VFL530-SE, VFL540, VFL540-SE Photos: Frieder Blickle for WE-EF