WHEN OKHOLM LIGHTING HAD A SMALL CAMEO IN A CRIME NOVEL
An extensive lighting project at Duborg-Skolen in Flensburg makes an unexpected appearance in Anette Hinrichs’ crime novel Mord i grænselandet. It is a small detail in the story – but an impressive example of the author’s meticulous research.
Summer is the perfect season for crime fiction. Few readers, however, expect to encounter their own work in the middle of a novel.
That is exactly what happened while reading Anette Hinrichs’ Grænsemordene series. It follows German deputy police inspector Vibeke Boisen and Danish investigator Rasmus Nyborg as they solve crimes on both sides of the Danish-German border.
The border region is more than a backdrop. Its history, towns, landscapes and cultural differences form an active part of the narrative. Anette Hinrichs visits the places she writes about and speaks with the people who live there. Her ambition is for local readers to recognise their own region – and for others to understand what makes it special. Read Gyldendal’s interview with Anette Hinrichs.
A remarkable passage on page 89
In the second novel in the series, Mord i grænselandet, the investigation takes the two police officers to Duborg-Skolen in Flensburg. They are sitting in the headteacher’s temporary office while the school is being renovated. In the middle of the description, we read:
“New lighting technology was being installed to imitate natural daylight. The lighting manufacturer had even consulted the architect involved in the lighting installation at the Elbphilharmonie.”
The lighting manufacturer is Okholm Lighting.
The consultant in question is the internationally recognised Hamburg-based lighting designer Ulrike Brandi, who developed the school’s new lighting concept together with Okholm Lighting. Ulrike Brandi Licht was also responsible for the lighting design at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, designed by Herzog & de Meuron and completed in 2017.
We would not claim that this is the first time a lighting project has found its way into a crime novel. But it is certainly the first time we have experienced it – and it can hardly be an everyday occurrence.
A major project captured in a few lines
Behind the novel’s phrase “lighting technology … to imitate natural daylight” lies an extensive development project.
The renovation covered approximately 13,000 square metres of existing school buildings and a new science extension of around 800 square metres. The complex represents several architectural periods and is listed both internally and externally. This placed particular demands on the integration of the new technology.
In collaboration with Ulrike Brandi Licht, Okholm Lighting developed a dynamic lighting concept based on the different qualities of daylight. Soft, diffuse skylight was combined with warmer, more directional light inspired by sunlight. Direct and indirect light, as well as uplighting, could be controlled separately and adapted to the function of each space and the activities taking place throughout the day.
Special circular pendant luminaires were developed for the school’s older buildings, while linear solutions were created for the newer areas. The linear luminaires were adapted to the listed Dampa ceilings and integrated into the Rockfon ceilings. Even the optics were developed specifically for the project, allowing the directional light to remain clearly perceptible without causing uncomfortable glare or poor uniformity. Read about Duborg-Skolen at Okholm Lighting.
The author’s description is highly condensed – yet it captures the central idea of the project with remarkable precision.
When research becomes a sense of place
The reference to Duborg-Skolen has no bearing on the plot. It is not product placement, and Okholm Lighting is not mentioned by name. That is precisely what makes the passage interesting. It is there because the author researched the school, the renovation and the place in which the story unfolds.
The same attention to detail characterises the descriptions of Flensburg, the fjord, Glücksburg and Southern Jutland. Towns, landscapes, architecture and materials are portrayed with a familiarity that evokes a particular sense of déjà vu in readers who know the border region.
The research also encompasses the region’s history. In Mord i grænselandet, the trail leads back to the German refugees who arrived in Denmark towards the end of the Second World War and to the large refugee camp at Oksbøl.
Anette Hinrichs has explained that her work on the novel changed direction after she read about the more than 7,000 German refugee children who died in Danish refugee camps and visited the graves at Oksbøl. This history subsequently became an important part of the novel’s background.
The connection between a contemporary crime story and the traces of the past takes the book beyond a conventional crime plot. History is not reduced to either a Danish or a German perspective. Instead, it shows how the past continues to live within families, local communities and relationships across the border. The subject is also explored in the documentary Hitlers tyske flygtninge i Danmark, which follows four former refugee children connected with the Oksbøl camp. Read about the documentary at the Danish Film Institute.
Light in a small but memorable supporting role
For Okholm Lighting, the reference is first and foremost an amusing and highly unusual summer story. But it is also a reminder that a well-integrated lighting project becomes part of a place’s architecture and history.
The lighting at Duborg-Skolen is not the main character in the novel. Nor should it be. It simply appears as a natural and credible part of the reality in which the story takes place.
Perhaps that is the finest recognition of all: the lighting has become so integrated into the building that it has also found a natural place in the story of the school.
Read more about Okholm Lighting’s project at Duborg-Skolen and Ulrike Brandi Licht.
The quotation and reference to the book have been approved by Gyldendal/Mette Bentholm. The books are published by Cicero.
