Inhabitat posted an article about the huge award that the Watercube (The Chinese Aquatic Center) won from the Australian Institute of Architecture. The award, called the Jorn Utzon Award for International Architecture, is a prestigious honor - but anyone who saw the Watercube on broadcast of the 2008 Summer Olympics knows how beautiful the Watercube really was, and how amazing a collaboration between form and function it brought to our minds.
The Watercube was a joint collaboration between PTW Architects, Chinese firms CSCEC and CCDI, and the international firm, Arup.
From Inhabitat’s article - I love this quote:
The jurors who selected the Watercube said, “The Watercube uses state-of-the-art materials to create a visually striking building that is also energy-efficient and ecologically friendly. The most impressive aspect of the project is the outer shell or molecular skin that envelops the building. The building has a chameleon-like quality that captures light in an extraordinary and memorable way. In every respect, the Watercube is an engaging and ethereal building that comfortably straddles the traditions of both Chinese and Western architecture.”
Have you ever been through “The Tunnel” at the Detroit Metro Airport? The McNamara Terminal at the Detroit Metro Airport has a 27 minute lighting masterpiece composed to a soundtrack - it provides an excellent and awesome spectacle of LED fury for those passing through.
Marcus Wuebker, an old friend and fellow lighting designer from Mills-James, Inc in Columbus, OH was the LD. I asked him to write a few words about the tunnel, which he so graciously did (thanks, Marcus!), and I’ve posted the article below. I hope you enjoy, as Marcus is a talented designer.
The McNamara Terminal at the Detroit Metro Airport has a passenger tunnel that connects two concourses beneath the tarmac. Curved glass panels with abstract art sand blasted into the back create a mural on both sides that runs the entire length of the tunnel. Translucent material completes the curve of the glass and visually connects the two sides.
The Smith Group is the Architect of record for that part of the airport and is responsible for the initial design. They created the space and specified the type and number of LED fixtures to artfully light it for a number of reasons including low maintenance and low heat output. Northwest Airlines then hired Mills/James Productions to evaluate the existing design and create a show for their passengers.
The Smith Group’s concept was to light the back wall from above with 6 rows of Color Kinetics iCove 12” fixtures. This produced an interesting yet subtle look as the light reflected off the wall through the glass. After spending some time with the mock up at the Fox Fire Glass, I decided the best way to light the glass was to focus the iCoves directly at the glass and break each glass panel into 3 separately controllable areas vertically. I programmed a thunderstorm rolling in complete with some lightning strikes and when the glass artist, Laurel Fyfe, saw it her eyes lit up. It took her about a half a second to realize how this approach would work in the tunnel with 135 glass panels on each side. She was so excited the next 10 panels she carved had shapes that could easily be describes as lighting bolts, rain drops, and clouds.
Back in Columbus, the composer, Victor Alexeeff, and I started discussing ideas for the show. I suggested a rainstorm and a sunrise/sunset themed piece. Victor had an idea for a space like piece that moved into the chaotic world of the infinitely small. Victor would write a piece, give it to me and I would program to it in WYSIWYG. After showing Victor what I could do with what he gave me, he would get excited and go back to his studio and create stuff with music and sound effects just so I could put a cool lighting effect to it like a comet that shot all the way through the tunnel. My favorite part of the show is when two small “fireballs” come at you from one and of the tunnel, and then suddenly the entire tunnel is enveloped in fire from the other end. All of these ideas came down to two sections that totaled 27 minutes, Ethereal and Nature.
The tunnel was programmed and runs today off of two Hog II PC’s. There are 8100 12” iCove Fixtures lighting the glass panels and 222 12” Color Blast lighting the ceiling and 12 48” Color Blaze in each rotunda all from Color Kinetics. Pathport Ethernet nodes distribute DMX throughout the tunnel.
I would like to thank Northwest Airlines and Mills/James Productions for the opportunity, as well as the other Artists that make this a one of a kind project.
I just read an article at PLSN about the big ol’ castle at the Isle of Man in England. For a fund raising event for Breast Cancer Awareness, Event Lighting Services lit up the outside of the castle in pink.
As a symbol of breast cancer support and awareness, the Falcon Cliff Castle on this British isle, dubbed the “Isle of Woman” for a recent fund-raising event, was washed in pink hues cast by Chauvet COLORado LED light fixtures. Part of “In the Pink Day,” the architectural lighting installation helped mark the end of a year-long fundraising drive that raised $55,000.
The Chauvet lights were selected because of their “vivid colors and spectacular brightness,” said Justin McMullin, owner of Event Lighting Services (ELS), a stage and event lighting rental company based on the island, which donated the lighting. “Because of this we only had to use six fixtures in all to light up such a large building,” McMullin said.
ELS used four Chauvet COLORado 1 wash lights and two COLORado 3 bank systems, both designed for outdoor use with an IP rating of 66. The models offer full RGB color mixing, which allowed for occasional changes in hues of the castle’s façade throughout the event.
Falcon Cliff, more than 150 years old, originally served as a residence for a banker. It later became a hotel and during the late 1880s, a large dance hall was added. Shuttered in the 1990s, the landmark building was restored and now serves as an office complex.
The COLORado LED fixture line is something from Chauvet that has been getting a lot of popularity. A friend of mine working for Michael Riotto Design in NYC was telling me at LDI this year that a lot of installations are getting these fixtures lately. They’re bright!
If you’re in Philly, you’ll be able to see the Ben Franklin Bridge lit up for Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness, efforts to prevent premature birth, Veteran’s Day, and Thanksgiving.
November 17-26, 28, and 30, the bridge will be illuminated with purples to promote the Delaware Valley Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk, which has raised several hundred million dollars towards the Alzheimer’s fight. November 10 and 12-16, the dridge will have red and blue lighting for March of Dimes Prematurity Awareness Month, and on November 11, Veteran’s Day will be commemorated with red and blue lighting.
Thanksgiving will get yellow and brown lighting, and my only question is - what are they considering “brown lighting?
Did you know that the Empire State Building will be illuminated several different ways for the next several days’ worth of American Election events?
Neither did I!
There are several events that will be cause for the lighting of the exterior of the Empire State Building:
Monday 11/3:
The Empire State Building will shine red, white and blue as a reminder to vote in the 2008 presidential election
Tuesday 11/4:
The building will split its lights to acknowledge the race for the presidency as the ESB’s north and south sides will be lit in Democratic blue, and the building’s east and west sides will be lit Republican red
Wednesday 11/5:
The Empire State Building will shine either blue for Barack Obama or red for John McCain as the winner of the 2008 presidential election is announced
Thursday 11/6:
The building will be lit in red, white and blue once again on to celebrate democracy in the U.S. This is the first time the Empire State Building will celebrate the presidential election by lighting up for four nights and the first time the building has split its lights for an election
I had no idea about these events. There is a history with all of this as well:
In 1932, a searchlight beacon alerting people for 50 miles that Franklin D. Roosevelt had been elected president of the United States was the first light to shine on top of the Empire State Building.
In 1976, colored lighting was first introduced and the tower was lit in red, white and blue to celebrate the American Bicentennial.
The Empire State Building’s tower lights are internationally recognized and are illuminated to commemorate holidays, events and causes that are of importance to New Yorkers, Americans and citizens of the world. An ESB lighting celebrates remarkable events, iconic traditions or significant anniversaries, such as E.U. Day, Lunar New Year, Earth Day, Veteran’s Day and many more.
Inhabitat has a great article about the Dobpler LED Wall, which is a motion-activated LED installation in the pedestrian tunnel in Sandnes Sentrum, Norway. The installation was a part of the city’s European Capital of Culture 2008 events - The Strømmer, as it is called, is an interactive wall of LEDs that illuminate when a person passes by it, and follows that personas they travel down the wall. There’s a great video of this on the website of the architect, Snohetta Architects of Norway.
The Strømer is the brainchild of Stig Skjelvik and Snøhetta architects in collaboration with Prototyper AS and Rasmus Hildonen. It is based on Stig’s Dobpler prototype, a modular interactive LED system that is activated by movement. When arranged next to each other, the project create a uniform series of modules that illuminate based upon a visual input system. As people move through the tunnel the wall lights up and leaves luminous trails behind them. Needless to say, this is a great way to turn a very, well, pedestrian space into a brand new experience.
Look at some of the images from the installation. Does that not look like a lot of fun?
One of the writers for the Yanko Design blog, Billy May, created a series of sort-of wall-integrated LED lighting fixtures - referred to as “torn lighting,” they blur the edge between structure and fixture. I love the description on the site: Anyone who has spent a significant period of time either living in a
small windowless apartment or tripping through the galaxy on a mind
bender may have at one point felt the urge to tear a hole in the wall
to let some light in.
That’s right, material with all of the same strength as concrete, but with embedded glass fibers to allow light to pass through it, giving silhouettes and other images of that nature. An article over from the good folks at Optics.org spreads info about the substance called “LitraCon,” invented by Aron Losconczi.
“Thousands of optical glass fibers form a matrix and run parallel to each other between the two main surfaces of every block,” explained its inventor Áron Losonczi. “Shadows on the lighter side will appear with sharp outlines on the darker one. Even the colours remain the same. This special effect creates the general impression that the thickness and weight of a concrete wall will disappear.”
Losconczi is a 27 year old architect living and studying in Stockholm, Sweden. His new company, affectionately called LitraCon, has been created to sell the product, and he hopes to begin selling prefab blocks of LitraCon later this year:
“In theory, a wall structure built out of the light-transmitting concrete can be a couple of meters thick as the fibers work without any loss in light up to 20 m,” explained Losonczi. “Load-bearing structures can also be built from the blocks as glass fibers do not have a negative effect on the well-known high compressive strength of concrete. The blocks can be produced in various sizes with embedded heat isolation too.”
Jim On Light is a blog about light - lighting, light and art, lighting devices, lighting control, lighting fixtures, lighting concepts, and anything else that deals with light as its medium.
Jim on Light is written by Jim Hutchison, Chief Design Consultant of Alive Lighting. Jim has years of experience in the Entertainment Lighting industry. Jim is a member of USA Local 829.
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