DAMPA_75_years_of_quiet_design_ENG - Flipbook - Page 133
Dæmpa Tunnel, circa 1975
In the 1970s, road infrastructure expansion was gathering
pace with numerous new bridge and tunnel projects commencing to shorten distances between places while easing
congestion. Dæmpa saw an opportunity to produce a
bespoke and very robust acoustic panel type with large perforations to line road tunnels and so ‘Dæmpa Tunnel’ panels
came into being. A very large order was then secured to line
the carriageways of the three-kilometre-long Elbe Tunnel,
connecting the road networks to the south and north of
Hamburg. These were completed in 1975 – but thereafter
few further orders were obtained and so Dæmpa Tunnel
was discontinued after only a brief phase in production.
More lucratively, Dæmpa made an opportune acquisition of
the right to produce a well-designed interval ceiling, composed of separate strips mounted on carrier rails with lighting recessed between, from a Swedish ceiling maker, Widén
& Wegel, which had gone bankrupt. For Dæmpa, the ‘Interval’ design would prove to be a great long-term success
and, indeed, it remains in production today, recently
renamed as ‘DAMPA® Lamella’.
In the same year, Dæmpa ceiling tiles were installed throughout the large CITY-2 shopping centre at Høje Taastrup to the
west of Copenhagen, which Kvorning & Kjærholm designed.
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