The Danube Arena is an aquatics complex located in Budapest, Hungary. It was planned by Marcell Ferenc and built between 2015 and 2017. The facility has two full course swimming pools, a diving pool and a short course training pool. Recently, Zumtobel and Thorn Luminaires gave the complex a lighting makeover.
Be Light, a local lighting design firm chose the product range from Thorn and Zumtobel to light up the swimming area. The Danube Arena includes two full-size swimming pools, a diving pool, and a training pool, and can host up to 15,000 spectators. The lighting design firm opted for the LED lighting to fulfill the demands of HDTV broadcasting.
The lighting project involves 280 of Thorn’s Altis LED floodlights to brighten the main pools, while the training pool uses 200 CRAFT high bays LED from Zumtobel. The Altis LED from Thorn comes with a flexible optical system that can be optimized for various applications, and according to Thorn, Altis LED floodlights are highly controllable and can deliver dynamic lighting displays. Moreover, Thorn says that Altis LED’s lightweight, compact design lowers down the structural costs for the luminaire.
The entrance and common areas feature 569 of Zumtobel’s PERLUCE ceiling luminaires. Zumtobel claims that CRAFT high bay LED luminaires use one-of-a-kind thermal management, and the design supports an extended service life. According to reports, the company created the inner workings and appearance of the Craft high bays from scratch to maximize efficiency.
The lighting system for the entire arena is digitally controlled using a total of 15,000 digital addresses, coinciding with the number of spectators the arena can accomodate.
István Zentai, technical director for the FINA World Championships Budapest, said, “Lighting is a key part of this. These building shows how light can be the most important building material for architects. The team combined creativity, technology and a lot of hard work to get it just right. They have created something very special, that Budapest can really be proud of.”
