jte get festive in leicester square
James Thomas Engineering has supplied 40 of its new PixelPAR 90 (A) architectural luminaires to Westminster City Council, to illuminate the trees in Leicester Square for the Festive season.
The scheme was designed by Ian Kirby of Lighting Effects Distribution and Steve Owen. The Square is lit every year for the Christmas period, but they wanted to do something dramatically different for 2003/04. Utilising an energy efferent lightsource was also very much at the conceptual essence of this year's project!
Three PixelPAR 90 (A) units are rigged in the branches of each of the Square's trees. JTE devised a low maintenance control system, featuring a custom-built box located in the last-minute-ticket booth, complete with in-built colour chases. The box is programmed to switch on at a predetermined time and step through a repeating sequence of colour changes until switch off time. The PixelPAR units are powered from local hard mains available in the square.
The PixelPAR 90 (A) was previewed at PLASA this year and is officially launched at LDI. James Powell, head of Pixel R 'n' D, comments that it's "Really great" to have such a high profile first installation for the new fixture.
Mayor of London Ken Livingstone switched on Leicester Square's lighting, and the illuminations will last until mid January.
information: www.pixelpar.com
Japan's prestigious Takarazuka University of Art and Design was founded in 1987 to facilitate traditional art and design education while encouraging new opportunities made possible by on-going technological innovation. The University seeks to foster creativity in various fields of study, provide students with professional art and design expertise, and make a lasting contribution to the industry and society at large. To help support this mission, the University unveiled a new satellite facility in Osaka in the spring of 2002, housing the University's Division of Continuing Education. To best symbolise its focus on the marriage of traditional art and modern innovation, the approximately 200-foot high building makes use of the latest advancements in intelligent LED illumination from Color Kinetics Japan to distinguish its presence against the Osaka city skyline.
Designed by internationally renowned artist James Turrell, who explores the use of light and space to create extraordinary works of art, the building's illuminated facade is awash with colour and movement. Turrell implemented a design that incorporates four ethereal lighting effects to highlight and animate the facade. Applying rich displays of red, green, blue, yellow, and white light, the cycle of effects begins with one, uniform colour. The colour then gradually changes from one to another in a series of intricate patterns rising from the building's bottom to the top, unfolding from left to right, and slowly diffusing outward from the building's centre. To achieve this performance with a high degree of control, 174 ColorBlast systems and nearly 1500 linear feet of iColor¨ Cove were installed to generate the desired blend of colours and effects without the efficiency and installation constraints of traditional lighting fixtures.
The building's illuminated sign also takes advantage of iColor Cove to complement the vivid facade and capture the attention of passersby. The lighting of both the sign and facade is programmed and controlled using a combination of Color Kinetics' iPlayer 2 for storage and playback and a DMX controller.
information: www.colorkinetics.com
Spectral Lighting and Lumidrives were given a brief to illuminate the inner walls of the staircase and the outer shell of the monolith in the Eifel museum in Genoveva Castle, Mayern, Germany. A homogenous linear light structure was requested to light the glass which lined the walls of the exhibition.
Luminaire manufacturer Spectral asked Lumidrives to develop a modular system that could be tailored with a minimum of variants. The solution was arrived at with two LED modules: a one-up and three-up profile. The even illumination is achieved using a specially designed optic coupled to the LED giving a 6 x 25 degree beam pattern, essentially creating a curtain of light. To further improve the evenness of the wall wash, additional mirrored reflectors are positioned on the staircase ceiling and in the middle of the walls in the exhibition rooms. These reflectors throw back a significant part of the curtain beam which is normally where a drop-off in light output is experienced with traditional lighting methods. The LED modules are housed within a specially designed aluminium profile, the key to whose design was thermal management (typical power was 36W a metre). For reliability and maximum lumen maintenance, the LED profile is designed to run at around 50°.
Two types of Lumidrives drivers were chosen: the Microdriver 9 for the stairs and the Colourdriver for the exhibition area. Each Colourdriver powers up to 36 LEDs and can be dimmed to low levels using DMX. The entire system was plug and play, making the actual module construction and installation easier. In total, more than 9,000 LEDs were used.
Gordon Routledge, MD of Lumidrives commented: "White LEDs are used for around 50% of the installation. They have a quite severe production tolerance so the actual colour can vary from green white, through to pink and blue white. Our solution was to carefully hand select more than 5,000 white LEDs and construct the modules so that extremes of colour tint were not used on the project."
information: www.lumidrives.com
The Swiss department store Jelmoli with a listed cladding is to be found in the centre of Zurich along one of the main roads. The company Dula Werke Dustmann & Co. GmbH were charged with the illumination of the window-reveals on the building. The challenge therein was to find a solution that would be as maintenance-free as possible and offer a problem free installation since the windows can only be opened outwards. Subsequent maintenance that can only be carried out from the outside will thus not be necessary. The application of LED illumination turned out to be the optimum solution since they offer the longest operating time and the lowest amount of maintenance. To realize this project Dula integrated various LED-products and converters manufactured by VS Optoelectronic; a subsidiary of the Vossloh-Schwabe group, who are specialized in the development and production of various LED-technologies and control devices. Moreover the total illumination of the window-reveals is a dynamic solution - very many different colours can be individually selected. So, for example, colours can be adjusted according to the various seasons, or an automated fade routine of the various colours can be programmed using a proprietary DMX controller.
information: www.vossloh-schwabe.com
The Bridge of Aspiration, a connecting bridge between the Royal Ballet School and Royal Opera house, has recently incorporated one of ACDC Lighting's specialist LED fixtures. The bridge consisted of a series of structures which twist through 90 degrees from one end of the bridge to the other, to accommodate the changing level from one building to the other. The custom designed LED fittings were developed to be integrated within the inner face of the aluminium extruded frames which made up the structure of the bridge. The scheme, designed by Philip Rose of Speirs and Major, incorporated one fitting located at the apex of each frame to highlight the dynamic nature of the structure.
information: www.acdclighting.co.uk
The new landmark of the city of Bonn rises up high between the Siebengebirge and the Rhine valley. The Post Office Tower symbolizes the new modern image of the town thanks to its aerodynamic, streamlined and thus wind-minimizing shape. The highest building in North Rhine-Westphalia stands for transparency and perception.
The integrated design approach of architect Helmut Jahn from Chicago unites construction, materials, functions and use. One is dependent on the other and it is therefore no surprise that, from the very beginning, Helmut Jahn placed the light concept in the hands of specialists. Once he had been awarded the contract, he engaged light designer Yann Kersale, AIK, Paris, and light planner Michael F. Rohde, L-Plan, Berlin as members of the planning team.
Endless Lichtpunkt fittings on the floor constitute the roots of this magnificent tower. Ansorg incorporated 1,500 Lichtpunkt LED fittings in stainless steel sheets. A systematically erratic pattern of seven different parallelograms creates the apparently random field at the foot of the tower: random like the roots of a tree but at the same time as methodical as the system of Nature.
Right at the top of the tower is the penthouse with its organically curved faŤade. The Board meets in the roof of the new Post Office Tower. The architects Murphy/Jahn decided to position a conference area 160 metres above the city of Bonn. The representative atmosphere with its surrounding roof terrace instils a sense of lofty subjectivity. Protected by glass panels measuring about 10 metres, this lofty exterior has the charm of a secluded room.
Vital steel arteries support the glass casing of the 42nd storey. Because the steel girders and a network design innovatively integrate the regulation of the interior and exterior temperatures, the generation of solar energy in photo-voltaic procedures, air circulation and sound damping. And they are also an integral part of the light technology. This technical arrangement shows the extraordinary building technology masterpiece in a nutshell. Depending on the amount of daylight, light emanates from the H-shaped steel girders which hide small Lichtpunkt LED fittings along their entire length.
information: www.ansorg.com
color kinetics and turrell a tower of strength
lumidrives revamp eifel museum
vossloh-schwabe get departmentalised
acdc create a bridge of aspiration...
...and ansorg create a landmark in bonn