Glare is avoided by mounting the unobtrusive luminaires. The lighting is from the bottom to the top. Horizontal lighting points create the impression of great spatial depth. For this purpose, Philips drew up plans for the light distribution based on pictures of the façades.
The solution is a triumph of weak light. The average wattage for the entire Speicherstadt is 24, ranging from 13 watts in the area of the towers to 18 watts for the bridges and 35 watts for the facades. Only in isolated cases have 70 watts been used, for example to set buildings apart from one another. In general, not the two-dimensional but the structuring and sculptural elements have been emphasised. Structure, contour and cubature are the orientation features of the light description. The result is an extremely attractive design of light and dark, i.e. a modelling and picturesque treatment of the building ensemble, whose street names still recall the former neighbourhood of Dutch religious refugees. In terms of art history, a homage to the technique of chiaroscuro and its perfection in Dutch painting is quite intentional.
The operation of the buildings became the co-author of the lighting design. The inner water axis of the fleets, which was no longer needed for deliveries, made it possible to limit the light to a single luminaire in each case, which transported the light along the individual floors up to the winch bonnet. The projecting parts of the façade with the light-coloured sandstone ends, the worn, rounded edges of the floors as well as the final round arches of the hatches thus stand out impressively, the doors that are set back a little appear like portals of an entrance. The pictorial and the imaginative are gaining in importance. The memories retain something mysterious that they do not reveal immediately and at first glance. The Speicherstadt is thus not a landscape of the first, fleeting glance. As a place of stored time, it preserves the richness of its impressions for those viewers who are rewarded for taking their time.
The model for the street side that is still active in delivery is called pairing. On either side of the winch lift, which is still in operation, two outriggers were placed above the public clearance. The overall greater brightness is also due to the location towards the old town. This is the representative side of the Speicherstadt, directly on the Zollkanal, predestined for a promenade once the customs fence has fallen. At the same time, the Speicherstadt will have a portal function for the planned HafenCity, the major urban development programme directly adjacent to Sandtorkai, the world-famous address for the coffee trade.