The wittenberg 4.0 lighting system by mawa champions subtle technicality and timelessness.
German lighting manufacturer mawa has made technical lighting its core business, but it doesn’t always look that way. One fine example of this is the brand's multi-talented wittenberg spotlight system, which has evolved through four generations to become increasingly versatile and increasingly handsome.
For more than 40 years, beneath a single roof southwest of Berlin, mawa has blended intelligent robotics with skilled craftsmanship. The company's manufacturing is guided by sustainability in every sense of the word, meaning that products must be durable, timeless and, after years of use, still function and look good. ‘They should age gracefully,’ says founder and managing partner Martin Wallroth. ‘That is, I think, our most important contribution to sustainability.’
The system's parkett floor light in red and blue accent colours and neutrals beige and grey. Photo: Leon Kopplow
Like the entire wittenberg 4.0 series, the surface-mounted spotlight has a large, well-deflected light emission surface and can be pivoted through 90° and rotated through 365°. Photo: mawa
The profile crown lights of the wittenberg 4.0 series are displayed as brilliant XXL chandeliers, a custom design for the new city hall in Cham. Photo: Patrik Graf
The collection’s fourth generation is, conspicuously, a product of this approach. Designed by Jan Dinnebier and engineered in-house, wittenberg 4.0 sheathes maximum flexibility and technical upgrades in a user-friendly and minimal form that makes the many models of this light fixture easy to adapt to the limitless ideas of architects and lighting planners. The light heads are contained in an emphatically compact and pared-down body that has even shed its cables and housing screws, which – poof! – are now invisible. ‘Our intention with the wittenberg was to develop a highly functional light that does not look technical,’ explains designer Jan Dinnebier. ‘The spotlight series is based on subtlety.’
With an unpretentious design vocabulary, minimized dimensions, and excellent powder-coating, the track spotlights set the scene for the exclusive eyeglass selection at Brillen in Mitte in Berlin's centre. Photo: Stefan Wolf Lucks
In Ziegert EverEstate GmbH, the room layout benefits from the recessed lights due to more light coupled with a reduced lighting volume in a simple, filigree design. Photo: Stefan Wolf Lucks
The system’s large light heads dampen glare, can be tilted 90°, rotated 365° and feature six dimming modes. The team developed wittenberg’s own cooling element and re-engineered the lens while the spots’ modular construction offers a choice of three interchangeable optics (spot 12°, medium 24°, flood 38°) that can widen the reflected beam angle with light-shaping diffusers. A patented bayonet catch allows the whole light head, from the LED to the lens, to be rapidly replaced without removing the housing. ‘If a tradesman needs three hands to install it, then it’s not only annoying, but will cost twice as much to fit it,’ says Wallroth. ‘As a lighting manufacturer, we should always ask ourselves how an electrician would judge the product.’
Cover image: The linear profiles of the wittenberg 4.0 series enable virtually any lighting requirement to be met and give planners and architects the necessary scope for individualization. Pictured is the Chapel Frommelhof in Heidelberg, Germany. Photo: Adrian Schulz
