Mandali Retreat Center

Application Context

Where once stood a restaurant known by locals and tourists, where you could admire a beautiful view of Lake Orta, now stands the center Mandali, which means "center of the world", a place of spirituality inspired by oriental disciplines. Built by the cusian architects Giancarlo and Matteo Primatesta, the center has the appearance of a village where there are apartments for guests, a spa with swimming pool overlooking the lake, a temple for meditation and a restaurant with vegan cuisine. Local and sustainable materials were used to build the structure and, wherever possible, energy is produced by solar power and natural wood-fired is used for heating. The ekinex products and devices were used to activate and control lighting scenarios in the Restaurant and Temple, as well as for the management of automated blinds.

The Client's requests

Particular attention has been paid by the client to the aesthetic in order to create harmony between the environment and the pushbuttons and energy withdrawal points. The control points are essential in the design, like the environment itself, but with advanced functions, to give the user the possibility of define different lighting scenarios depending on the event as for the restaurant, and depending on the meditation, as for the Temple. Games and light atmospheres have also been obtained in the SPA pool's ambience. The designer and the client have seen in the international system KNX for home & building automation, the solution that among its merits for the modularity and a very low obsolescence over time.

Ekinex Solutions

Ekinex products have been chosen for their aesthetic and technical features. The ekinex® pushbutton Series FF EK-ED2-TP, appreciated for both its functions and above all for its aesthetic design, is a KNX device for on/off control of appliances, dimming of lighting, control of motorised drives or other programmable control functions; it has an integrated temperature probe and the possibility of being used as a thermostat. The control of lights, sockets and curtains, in the Restaurant, in the SPA and in the Temple, is carried out by means of the EK-FF1-TP module: it is a KNX modular device for panel mounting, capable of controlling single or group of electrical utilities and controlling motorised drives. The management of the lights also requires a control for the definition of scenarios from the end-users. This required the use of some devices for dimming LEDs. For example, ekinex EK-GA1-TP modular dimmers were used to control 230 Volt LEDs, while EK-GC1-TP and EK-GF1-TP modular dimmers were used for RGBW LEDs. In the common areas, corridors and changing rooms, ekinex EK-DB2-TP presence sensors have also been used to limit consumption when no staff or guests are present in the area.

Scenario management

An important part of the application is, finally, the management of scenarios. Through the push-button commands by keeping pressed the pre-configured keys, scenarios can be saved and recalled, which can activate and adjust the luminaires to the desired intensities, close or open the curtains for meditation, and which make the lighting atmosphere in the SPA special, for a unique experience. And when all the guests have gone to rest, just press a button for 2 sec. ... and it activates the scenario that turns off all the lights.