Pole lighting or light from a pole?

A minimalistic luminaire design concept for commercial and urban outdoor applications

Picture this: you want to illuminate a street, and the adjacent walkway, with some accent lighting onto nearby trees and highlighting a statue. At times, there is need for public announcements, requiring PA speakers, and you also want a CCTV camera for security. Once a month this area is used for a farmers’ market and the stalls need power and some water. Some flags, advertising the market, should also be hanging off poles…and what about WIFI and provisions for the Christmas decoration?
To accomplish all these tasks, traditionally you would need a pole with a bracket for the street light, a couple of spot lights installed onto the pole, a PA speaker with a bracket on the pole, and the same for the CCTV camera…and then another pole for the flags. And where will the power and water for the market stalls come from? As a result, you will end up with a severely cluttered pole that doesn’t even cover all the requirements.
Now picture just a pole, no brackets, no attachments and covering all the requirements described above: City Elements from HESS, Germany. A minimalistic lighting and infrastructure pole, modular flexible for the tasks you want to cover. No clutter, just a slim pole: Functions follows form … pole lighting!
So, what is a pole lighting system? It is a modular system made from short tubular elements which can accomplish different tasks:

For lighting you can have an uplighter on the top of the pole, an element with asymmetrical light distribution e. g. for street lighting, another element with adjustable lateral lighting and elements for area lighting. A special element for the CCTV camera and elements in the base for power and water supply. Also attached are flag pole holders and provisions for Christmas decorations…and the WIFI antenna is integrated in a top element. All these elements can rotate 360 degrees and can be located in every height as needed. Poles up to 9m with two different diameters of 180mm and 230mm are possible. Pole lighting with no brackets – no attachments.

The philosophy of pole lighting is, instead of reaching out horizontally with brackets from a pole, this innovative design integrates different functionalities vertically up- and down the pole. In other words: Function follows form and not Form follows Function. The technical design is reduced to the absolute necessities: pole, glass windows, but no brackets or arms. Above a picture of a typical intermediate lighting element for spot lighting with XICATO LED’s
The configuration of the City Elements pole lighting is easy – there is an online configurator that enables you to pick and choose (nearly) all available elements, which are then assembled to produce your customized pole.
In case there is a need to integrate a more traditional lighting head – you can now integrate the new Dalvik head seamless into the City Elements family.

And in case your design idea is not covered yet – HESS, Germany can customize a pole lighting solution for you. Check out this YouTube video showing the manufacturing of a customized City Elements solution for the Doha Convention Centre.