Advertising spaces as design elements

Swiss Railway Terminals

Advertising media as design element

Luminous orchestration of advertising and artwork in the outdoor space

Light boxes for posters played a central role as design elements for the redevelopment of the 7 Swiss central railway terminals . Architectural and space requirements  called for  new standards  for aesthetics, overall depth, service, robust build  and maintenance. As an addition to the tried and tested free-standing BURRI Light Boxes LK2000 and Soleil poster media, BURRI has developed a particularly flat light box system for wall mounting. With an overall depth of only 65mm and a surface  area of up to 6m², the LK 4000 has extended the margins of  the design process. Accordingly, architects have implemented the new light box series as important design elements in high-profile  projects. Two outstanding examples are the design gallery in the Serletta multi-story car park  in St. Moritz by Bearth & Deplazes and the large-scale waiting areas  with 192 showcases and B12 light panels at the Bahnhofplatz Zurich by Dürig AG architects. 

Products used

Making of

Competencies deployed in development: 
Electronics and control technologies
Steel- and metal construction
Development and construction
Materials and technology

Dependability and energy efficiency

Shorten planning time through use of in-house system components

Nowadays the planning times have also decreased for public customers. BURRI creates elbowroom and dependability for those involved, through great know how in engineering, short implementation times and the use of existing system components. In the case of the railway terminals, on the request of the customer commercial electronic components were implemented, which had already been tried and tested in other major projects; all systems have been Electrosuisse/CE/EMC tested. Furthermore, the guidelines of the public utility companies and the Swiss Federal Railways had to be met. Special cases such as structures involving listed buildings, flush installations in existing systems or mounting on the end of track section in railway stations (buffer stop), as well as mounting of overhead scrollers had to be solved taking into account all boundary conditions and security restrictions.

Optimum design for artwork or advertising

Lighting technology combined with long-standing experience in metal construction engineering

In the LK 4000 Light system BURRI's long-standing experience with poster light boxes in the outdoor space is complemented by the latest light dispersion panel technology. Thus it is possible to consistently illuminate even larger panels with only 2 to 4 FL tubes. As tried and tested, the casements and frames are welded end-to-end, the safety glass is glued in place using cleanroom technology and additionally sealed. The pneumatic springs, for pneumatic opening of the casements, are located outside of the base frame behind the protruding casement. Vertical opening enables poster replacement even during rain. By means of slotted nozzles the slim-line light box remains ideally ventilated. Posters or artwork are fixed crease-free by means of a lifting and tensioning device and condensation behind the glass is prevented.

The right solution in the right place

Adaptations to situations and requirements due to flexible manufacture

The implementation time for the seven SFR central railway terminals, as well as for large-scale waiting halls at Zurich Railway Station was extremely tight due to the complexity of the projects. Numerous detail problems had to be solved using special structures in order to configure the various situations such as light boxes on buffer stops, clamping fixtures on listed structures, horizontally swing-out large-scale light boxes in the waiting hall or special showcases in line with location and customer requirements. 
Within the project Serletta St. Moritz together with the advertising art, functional directed lighting was also to be provided. For this purpose additional light-bands were integrated at the top or bottom in order to illuminate the walls, ceiling and stairs behind the flat light boxes.

Long lifespan and minimal maintenance costs

Reduction of the life cycle costs (LCC) through intelligent system components

In the full cost pricing for the service period of a light box the costs for purchase and installation turn out to be lower than the later total expenditure for maintenance, cleaning and electronics maintenance. With a modular construction system BURRI has designed its light boxes for optimum handling by the billstickers, minimum maintenance requirements as well as quick and simple replacement of the electrical components. Example: LCC (life cycle costs) of the light boxes for the largest Swiss supplier. With the modular construction system BURRI has changed over more than 2000 light boxes over 15 years old to the latest lighting technology. The life cycle has been doubled, the electricity consumption has been reduced by 50% and the maintenance costs by 70%. Furthermore the operators were spared replacement of the light boxes and the approval procedures related to new foundations.