SEFAR Architecture’s LightFrame system warmly welcomes passengers and employees with large-scale overhead lighting inside the Zurich Airport in Zurich, Switzerland. The modular fabric ceiling covers 3,229ft² of the redesigned shopping concourse between terminal 1 and car park elevator 1, improving lighting effects and spatial acoustics.
"One of the goals of this project was to create the feeling of an open sky as a connection between the airport and traveling. With the LightFrame system and innovative light variations, we were able to simulate a sky to create a pleasant, comforting and relaxing environment," explains architect Florin Baeriswyl from dai AG.
SEFAR Architecture LightFrame is the only fabric framing system available that can provide both light diffusion and acoustic improvements. It features wrinkle-free, high light-diffusing architectural fabrics biaxially stretched over a light, modular frame system. The aluminum frame is 12cm-deep and assists with light deflection.
LightFrame’s seamless modules use locking screws to bring the edges of adjacent frames less than a half-inch apart, providing impressive uniformity of light distribution and appearance. The modules are also very simple to construct and access for light source maintenance. LightFrame features a duel-skin system, unlike competitive products that are single skin. As a result, the airtight double layer covering eliminates penetration of dust and insects on the fabric membrane.
The Zurich Airport LightFrame system was specified with SEFAR Architecture’s IA-80-CL PVDF mesh fabric, which allows 80% light transmission. The low-maintenance material resists UV rays, moisture and dirt and meets all fire code requirements. In the event of a fire, it produces very little smoke and instead of dripping, retracts like a skin.
SEFAR Architecture fabrics have undergone a series of tests at Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research. According to the EN ISO 354 standard, the fabrics have proven to be acoustically optimised to improve sound quality and reduce reverberation.