Bringing daylight to where people live and work.
As urbanization continues to advance, cities are becoming denser and taller. This makes it increasingly challenging to provide natural daylight to interior spaces. Particularly in basements, interior rooms, and densely built-up structures, the question of how to effectively integrate daylight into the architecture has come to the forefront.
Even though modern artificial lighting systems are becoming increasingly sophisticated, natural daylight remains unmatched in terms of quality. It changes throughout the day, helps people find their way, enhances the natural perception of spaces, and plays a key role in creating a pleasant environment.
Daylight influences our biological day-night rhythm and, as a result, our well-being, concentration, and energy levels. Getting enough natural light during the day supports the human body’s internal clock and helps regulate activity, rest, and sleep more effectively.
As we spend more and more time indoors, good natural lighting is becoming an important quality feature of modern buildings. While typical indoor illuminance levels of 300 to 500 lux are sufficient for many visual tasks, they cannot replace the spatial, biological, and atmospheric effects of natural daylight.
For the stable regulation of our internal clock and the associated sleep-wake cycle, typical indoor lighting levels of 300 to 500 lux are relatively low in many situations. Natural daylight reaches significantly higher illuminance levels: even at dusk, depending on the weather and surroundings, several thousand lux may be present, while on a clear day at noon, values of up to around 100,000 lux are possible.
These differences illustrate why natural daylight is so important to the quality of a space. Not only does it make a room appear brighter, but it also changes throughout the day, aids in orientation, and contributes to a pleasant, lively living and working environment.
Heliobus® addresses the lack of daylight in buildings with innovative daylight solutions and sophisticated Daylight Engineering. Our systems direct natural light specifically to areas where it is otherwise limited—such as basements, interior rooms, enclosed spaces, and complex building structures.
This creates brighter, more welcoming, and more functional spaces that are more pleasant to be in, with natural lighting and a stronger connection to the outside world.
Founder and developer
The possibilities of Daylight Engineering Heliobus® founder Rudolf Signer for many years and remain the foundation of his work to this day. Bringing natural light into dark, interior, and “trapped” spaces—that is his vision.
As an energy and civil engineer, Rudolf Signer recognized early on the need for space-optimizing daylighting systems. As early as 1996, he and his team implemented their first pilot project in a school building in St. Gallen. This experience became the starting point for a fascinating and meaningful niche in the field of engineering.
This pioneering work laid the foundation for today’s Heliobus® expertise: directing natural light precisely where traditional window solutions reach their architectural limits—into basements, interior rooms, and complex building structures.
In 1999, the newly founded Heliobus® AG successfully launched its first standard product: the Heliobus® Spiegelschacht®. Over the years, this innovation evolved into a comprehensive daylighting concept that combines functionality, engineering, and aesthetics.
The Heliobus® principle has been continuously refined, patented worldwide, and installed in thousands of locations. Today, Heliobus® stands for customized daylighting solutions that bring natural light specifically to basements, interior rooms, and challenging building environments.
For pioneer Rudolf Signer, one thing is particularly important: enhancing spaces and buildings through natural light, thereby noticeably improving people’s well-being.
Innovation meets attention to detail
From the initial concept to professional installation, Heliobus® is committed to quality, precision craftsmanship, and comprehensive engineering expertise. Every daylighting solution is carefully planned, customized, and implemented to meet the highest standards of functionality, design, and durability.
This is how we create custom daylighting systems for sophisticated buildings and spaces—efficient, aesthetically pleasing, and inspired by nature.
Our history
