Espaciel

In autumn and winter, the sun is getting scarcer and scarcer. At the end of the year, the sun’s rays, when it deigns to show the tip of its nose, hardly ever reach the windows of the offices of the Permanent Representation of France to the EU in Brussels.

Pierre-Alexandre, the head of the economic service, works in dark offices. Pierre-Alexandre and his team are determined to improve their daily lives. According to him, natural light is a vector of professional efficiency.

Find out how Espaciel has made dark offices naturally bright with the help of famous light reflectors.

• Owner : Permanent Representation of France to the European Union
• Type of building : Offices on building courtyard
• City : Brussels (Belgium)
• Opening : Windows
• Room : Office
• Model Espaciel installed : Wall Reflector

Configuration and solution finding

The offices of the economic department are located on the second floor of a business building with a total of nine floors. They are equipped with large windows. But they overlook an inner courtyard that hides the sun. This large working room was initially dark for two reasons:

• The configuration on the offices overlooking in inner courtyard
• The situation on the 2nd floor of the building’s 9 floors

In order to work in better conditions, Pierre-Alexandre was challenged by Espaciel’s products, that perfectly meet his team’s needs.

The Light Reflectors make it possible, regardless of the weather (bright sun or cloudy), to significantly increase the natural luminous flux. The gain in natural light provides the occupants with a feeling of well-being in daylight, which is an essential factor in professional fulfilment.

Considered solution

With Espaciel’s expertise, the head of the economic department then took the decision to install Wall Reflectors in front of the openings of a first office.

The products are installed using self-drilling screws directly on the aluminium joinery. The colors of the joinery and the reflector supports are matched (Anthracite color).

Technical zoom : The use of Reflectors for windows was not possible because the opening of the windows is too wide. This configuration does not allow the extensible bar of the Window Reflectors to be fitted in the window tunnel. Hence the idea of using the Wall Reflector with a fixing on the frame at the window sill.

With the configuration, users now have the possibility to change the inclination of the Espaciel Reflectors at will in order to best direct the natural light flux projected into the office, simply by opening the window and without the help of any tools.

This project lasted less than 2 hours, which allowed the employees of the economic department to quickly resume their work under better conditions. The Espaciel installers were able to be discreet while working quickly and efficiently.

Development outcomes

With the installation of these 4 Wall Reflectors on the two openings of the equipped desk, a gain in brightness could be immediately observed. The light flux increased from 73 lux without reflectors to 161 lux with reflectors (measured with a Luxmeter).

For the people working in these premises, this significant increase in daylight brings much better well-being at work than with 100% artificial lighting. From now on, with this increase in daylight autonomy, office occupants can do without artificial light for longer periods of time during the day. This increase in daylight autonomy limits the consumption of energy from electrical sources.

A follow-up to this project is planned over the next few months, since these 4 Wall Reflectors will serve as a full-scale test to observe the full potential that natural light can provide to office occupants. More offices in the economic department could then be equipped with this type of equipment starting in 2020.