Vienna City Hall’s renovation preserved its historic character while adding dynamic color-changing lighting and reducing energy use by half. Over 1.100 Color Kinetics luminaires now illuminate its towers, arcades, and niches, offering flexible white and color scenes. Despite the challenges of installing lighting on a protected landmark, the project achieved a vibrant, efficient transformation.
Energy‑saving dynamic color-changing lighting for a landmark
Vienna, Austria
Team
Podpod Design, Lighting Design | Installation & Maintainance, Ing. Emmerich Csernohorszky GmbH | Magistrate of the City of Vienna (MA34), Client
“Switching to Color Kinetics LED luminaires gave Vienna City Hall beautiful and flexible lighting that cut energy use by 50% and reduced costs."
Helmut Meier
Managing Director - Signify Austria
Customer challenge
The City of Vienna launched a €2M project to modernize Vienna City Hall’s lighting while preserving its historic character. The goal was to introduce dynamic color-changing lighting and cut energy use by half. As a protected landmark, the building required careful renovation. Its age and structure demanded complex cable routing through cellar vaults and up 98‑meter towers, often at night, while façade restoration work occurred simultaneously.
The solution
More than 1,100 Color Kinetics luminaires now illuminate Vienna City Hall’s façade. White-light fixtures accentuate architectural details, while IntelliHue color luminaires add depth with dynamic light across towers, arcades, windows, and niches. The system gives the city the flexibility to shift between warm and cool white light for everyday elegance or vivid, dynamic color scenes for civic celebrations and special events. Using external consoles and a central controller, staff can easily manage the many luminaires grouped over two DMX universes.
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