The quality of lighting in car showrooms is critical to car manufacturers. Stringent guidelines are set for all showroom lighting, including specific details of the luminaires to be used and ambience to be achieved. However, these lighting guidelines are often developed in countries in Europe or Northern Asia where the natural lighting is very different to the natural lighting available in countries like Australia, and specifically in areas like the Sunshine Coast. The challenge for VW’s Maroochydore showroom was to develop and provide an alternate lighting solution that suited the natural lighting of the area, but still met the stringent global lighting guidelines for it to be approved by VW Germany.

DMA Engineers was engaged to perform calculations and produce documents for a detailed lighting plan proposal which could be used to obtain approval from VW headquarters. We knew that to get approval from VW in Germany for lighting that did not match their standard specifications, specific local data and evidence would be required. As such, a critical component of our work involved undertaking calculations emulating the sun tracking across the sky across each season and all times of the day. Taking the sun into account along with alternate luminaires, we were able to produce isolux diagrams and rendered images for VW’s approval. The approved lighting solution was both pragmatic and economic; it met the requirement to light the showroom in line with VW’s corporate philosophy while using fewer fittings at a reduced cost.