BMW is one of the most prestigious car manufacturers in the world, manufacturing luxury cars and motorcycles since 1916. BMW Brighton is one of many BMW dealerships operating throughout Australia.

Stillwell Motor Group has been a BMW franchise since 1980 and has relocated its BMW Dealership operations from Brighton to the inner south suburb of Bentleigh. Stillwell Motor Group invested $13.5m in a bespoke construction on an 8960m² block of land to build the ultimate showroom that sets a benchmark for BMW showrooms as the most modern dealership, workshop, and detailing facility in Victoria.

The new BMW Dealership was produced and designed with an open plan layout to suit the new site whilst ensuring corporate branding is met. Versalux partnered with Stillwell Motor Group and ERA Architects to provide high-quality lighting systems that perfectly showcase the brand’s beautiful cars and latest models in a custom designed, multi-storey car showroom founded on BMW’s design specification. Versalux created a lighting solution that met BMW’s guidelines and corporate identity as a one-stop car dealership offering a variety of services in a single location, delivering an extremely high quality and reliable system for an unparalleled retail experience.

The showroom is the focal point of the BMW Dealership. The illumination constitutes advertising of the vehicles, allowing customers to see the multi-faceted features and world-class engineering of the products, whilst creating a sense of quality and affirming the status that the brand has earned. Upon entering the showroom, clients are invited into a lively atmosphere, immediately attracted to the simple and elegant aesthetic, and wanting to discover and explore all aspects of the cars and the space.

The VENICE 20 PLATE is integrated into the plastered ceilings, the recessed square luminaires featured in a combination of single, double, and triple modules. The classic BMW showroom ‘roadway’ configuration is thereby defined not only by the vehicles but also the linear array of lighting fixtures. The luminaires create an enticing image at the forefront of the end-to-end car sales experience. The unique façade displays the BMW car models as the centre of attention for the ground & first floor.

The VENICE 20 PLATE luminaires selected feature a narrow beam optic for dramatic highlighting, and the high colour rendition displays the colours of natural vehicles to glamorous effect. Placement of the fixtures allows each corner and side of every vehicles to be a feature, creating a superb experience for customers, and providing a welcome platform for the professional guidance of sales staff.

The exclusive, private, VIP lounge area on the top floor introduces the range of BMW’s most prestigious cars as pieces of automotive art. The VENICE 7 DOWNLIGHT and the COMO BLACK join forces to deliver stunning illumination, scintillating reflections, and different lighting shapes that exude class and confirm BMW as a global brand, with a focus on its unique M series and revealing the latest BMW sports and supercar models.

The COMO BLACK luminaires are arrayed across the guest lounges for the enjoyment of BMW Brighton’s clientele.  The premium COMO BLACK luminaire is technically advanced, a high performance downlight with a minimal design that delivers high output with low glare, illuminating the contemporary environment with exceptional visual comfort. The interior design is highlighted by the fixtures, displaying timeless custom furniture pieces, cultivating a relaxed and personalised approach for sales staff to engage in conversation with their customers at an informal level. The area is well situated by an open plan design that enables visitors to delve into other parts of the BMW dealership.

The COMO BLACK was used in the meeting rooms as the sole luminaire recessed into minimal plastered ceilings. The design makes excellent use of its multi-faceted optics to ensure horizontal uniformity and vertical illumination without disruption by glare. COMO BLACK provides ample surface illumination to accentuate the architectural elements of the office space, with focused direct illumination in the clear and transparent environment for management and staff to conduct meetings, discuss contracts and finance arrangements.

COMO BLACK were also featured in the trim selection areas of the open plan space. Neutral coloured light with high colour rendition supports the minimalistic architectural design to unobtrusively support clients as they make their choices of options to add the finishing touches to their vehicle.

In the main workshop, DURALED CAPRI luminaires are suspended from high ceilings. The heating/cooling systems challenged the luminaire layout to provide the prestige vehicle service mechanics with sufficient illumination for their high detail tasks whilst remaining out of the way of the airflow venting. DURALED CAPRI was an obvious choice, a small-scale fixture capable of powerful illumination with high visual comfort through Versalux’s proprietary reflector/refractor system. The DURALED CAPRI LED lighting system is strategically positioned in rows across the 26 service bay workshop.

The DURALED CAPRI is an robust, durable, and low-maintenance luminaire. The wide beam distribution is a prized feature of DURALED CAPRI luminaires, engineered to ensure vertical illumination is achieved, providing an effective and uniform lighting solution with a low glare design that minimises shadows and is suitable for mechanics and technicians to inspect, operate and complete repairs in a secure environment.

Supplementing the workshop tasks are the VRL utility luminaires, a multi-purpose translucent diffused cylindrical fixture that can be mounted in a wide array of configurations and its illumination directed around its long axis for excellent versatility. Each workshop bay’s workbench included a VRL mounted on the wall above the service technician’s head to provide abundant illumination for small detail tasks, ensuring that each worker is provided with their own personal illumination without creating shadows on their task.

A combination of recessed DURALED CAPRI and K12 series fixtures illuminate the vehicle service drop-off bays, a specialised area for vehicle owners and vehicle service staff to discuss the mechanical servicing requirements of the cars. The clean, high-reflectance surfaces of the walls and ceiling are illuminated to excellent effect by the DURALED CAPRI fixtures, allowing shadow-free lighting of the vehicle from multiple angles. The trimless, in-floor recessing of the K12 fixtures allows for unobtrusive illumination when a vehicle is hoisted to view its underside.

The SMART series is used on 6 m high TUBAL series poles to provide support illuminating the outdoor car dealership. The SMART luminaires feature precision optics for powerful, direct illumination creating an unparalleled retail exterior experience.