HALLGRÍMSKIRKJA INTERIOR LIGHTING
Reykjavik, Iceland
Designers: Örn Erlendsson, Guðjón L. Sigurðsson, Katerina Blahutova — Liska ehf.
Owner: Hallgrímskirkja
Photos: Örn Erlendsson
The colorful exterior of well-known landmark Hallgrímskirkja Church was not the only part of the building to get a recent revival. The inside of the cultural hub was updated in just one month’s time to include a smart wireless lighting system replete with LEDs, sensors and dynamic controls hidden from guests’ views. Working in tandem with the cathedral’s architecture, and with minimal interventions into the historic structure, lights emphasize the interior’s dimension, shape and volume by visually broadening or vertically accentuating key spaces.
RGBTW lighting in corridors and ceiling vaults highlight the architectural features. With respect to the cathedral’s functionality during services, colorful lights create various scenes to celebrate cultural events and inspire contemplation. During services and daytime visiting hours, general lighting is warm to complement wooden furnishings and create a comforting atmosphere with sufficient light levels for reading. Cooler tunable-white spotlights always shine upon the altar, ensuring that it stands out against any general and scene-specific lighting. Finally, the church organ is subject to dramatic geometric shadow play—an effect created with tunable-white front lights and color-changing RGBW back lighting.
Though luminaires are grouped by functionality, with the general scenes for daytime operation accessible by switches, all fixtures are also individually controllable via a tablet—making the system open to any future designs the church may need.
LINGANG TOP SCIENTISTS FORUM
Shanghai, China
Designers: Jason Yang, Anny Dai, Tina Wang, Fox Xu, Xinjie Cai, Janice Zhang — LEOX design partnership
The 65,000-sq ft conference center brings together the world’s top scientists and Nobel Laureates each year to share the latest in scientific achievements. The space comprises meeting areas, a digital library, banquet hall, theater and other communication areas. The design concept addresses the relationship between light and darkness by emphasizing visual depth and rhythmic feeling. Vertical lighting requirements consider both the demands of live broadcast, but also small-scale discussion. As a result, various scene luminance is preset to balance the sunlight entering the space. Lighting systems are integrated into architectural materials throughout to create this “sparkling feast.”
NVIDIA VOYAGER INTERIOR
Santa Clara, CA
Designers: Brandon Thrasher, Vasudha Rathi, Venna Resurreccion, Prianka Giridharadas, Abraham Benguigui — HLB Lighting Design
Owner: NVIDIA
Photos: Jason O’Rear
Work meets wellness and sustainability in the second phase of the tech company’s open floorplan headquarters. In this largescale space with ceilings up to 70-ft high, designers reimagined the corporate environment to reflect the company’s aspirations of well-being, innovation and memorable experiences for their employees. The design team implemented a lighting strategy that seamlessly blends the interior with the exterior, while simultaneously infusing a sense of human scale into the environment. Lighting solutions such as daylight harvesting; soft, diffused electric light; fixtures concealed within architecture; bespoke decorative fixtures; and indirect glare-free lighting systems are tailored to meet the requirements of the office’s diverse topography, including lab corridors, meeting rooms, grow walls, food services spaces and more.
Color temperature plays a large role in the success of the airy environment and was carefully selected to enhance each space’s function and materiality. Work areas are illuminated with a cool 4000K to enhance already daylit areas, while collaboration areas are lit with 3000K light sources.
The project’s extensive use of natural light results in an energy savings 40% below California Title 24 requirements.
SUMMIT ONE VANDERBILT
New York City, NY
Designers: Brian Stacy, Chris Rush, Tanner Chee, Xena Petkanas, Joe Chapman, Cibele Romani, Carin de Beer — Arup
Owner: SL Green
Photos: Arup
Dramatic visuals and colorful schemes inside SUMMIT One Vanderbilt lead visitors up to a multi-level observation deck, which reveals a sky-high view of The City That Never Sleeps. Created with purposeful diffused, reflected and accentuated lighting, these anticipatory spaces utilize integrated and DMX-controlled dynamic color and white lights. The detailed design works in conjunction with the project’s many unique finishes, such as mirrors, a high-reflectance white corridor and black tunnel surfaces, to maximize visual impact and immersion, with targeted lighting placement to meet energy and budget goals.
The curated journey begins under a seamless, double-layer of stretched fabric backlit with custom-layout panelized LEDs, with small-diameter downlights in a staggered constellation pattern for additional fill light. From there, a darkened corridor with pulsating sound and contrasting color prepare visitors for their ascent. Inside mirrored infinity elevators, localized DMX controllers pulse backlit glass floors while pixel-controlled perimeter lighting beats in rhythm with an experiential soundtrack.
Doors open to a curved hall of colorful ebbing lights, and then guests enter the mirrored experience—which blends the exterior cityscape with the interior space during the daytime, and awakens with color after sunset. With custom chrome downlight trims, and tailored pixel-controlled RGB LED inside custom two-way mirrored columns, the infinity room transforms to place patrons into the colorful scenes reflected in the mirrors.
At the uppermost level, guests revisit white-light circular features, carefully controlled for undistracted observation-deck views.
ILLUMINATION AWARD FOR INTERIOR LIGHTING DESIGN, SPONSORED BY EDWIN F. GUTH
Special Citation for Skylight Lighting for Restoration and Recreation of the Laylights
DAR CONSTITUTION HALL RENOVATION
Washington, D.C.
Designers: John Jacobsen, Joshua Grossman — Schuler Shook
Owner: National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution
Photos: Ron Blunt Architectural Photography & Joseph Romeo Photography
Constitution Hall holds a starring role within Washington, D.C.’s cultural community, with status as its largest concert hall at 3,700 seats. This grand historic auditorium hosts a variety of events, including meetings, awards ceremonies, graduations, concerts, comedy shows and television broadcasts. The most dramatic feature of the original 1929 design was the expansive glass laylight which, flanked by a curving plaster ceiling, flooded the room with natural light. Sadly, this brilliance was nearly forgotten for three-quarters of a century with the glass-block roof tarred over, the laylight replaced with opaque panels, and the attic filled with equipment.
A large team of stakeholders undertook a multi-phase restoration of Constitution Hall. Central to the project’s success, restoration of the illuminated laylight was a technical and logistical challenge. The design team worked closely with manufacturers to provide new custom fixtures that fit within the existing laylight framing. Not only does the laylight mimic diffuse daylight seen in historic photographs, the owner requested that it also be able to provide the appearance of a nighttime sky, with twinkling points of starlight. Additionally, the majority of the laylight panels are removable for coordination with new rigging infrastructure. An architectural processor provides day-to-day control, with touchscreen and preset buttons accessible to staff. DMX input allows for theatrical consoles to take control during events. The project meets ASHRAE 90.1-2010 lighting power allowances, without historic landmark exemptions.
ILLUMINATION AWARD FOR INTERIOR LIGHTING DESIGN, SPONSORED BY EDWIN F. GUTH
Special Citation for Immersive and Experiential Lighting
STAR WARS: GALACTIC STAR CRUISER
Orlando, FL
Designers: Josh Iscovich, Michael Carter, Joey Reynolds, Ashley Jenner, Paul Beasley, Ed Zeigler, Harrison Haug, Marihan Mehelba, Zara Bucci, Taylor Maurer, Jason Badger — Walt Disney Imagineering
Owner: The Walt Disney Company
Photos: Mike Puncher/Walt Disney Imagineering
Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is a first-of-its-kind, fully immersive, multi-day experience, requiring an innovative lighting design. During the two-day vacation adventure, guests occupy a fully light-controlled “starship.” Everything from guest rooms to corridors and atriums are lit to present a high-end luxury experience. The lighting system also changes throughout the day to punctuate unexpected story events. Lighting befits a luxury vessel. Custom decorative fixtures suggest the finest accommodations, while fixtures concealed in linear soffits provide diffuse light. Even the downlights have custom oval trims to provide cohesive design language. As no natural light enters the space, lighting supports circadian rhythm but in a unique story-driven fashion. Lights transition from white overhead illumination during the day to richly saturated colors from lower elevations at night. When the leisurely cruise turns into a race to save the galaxy, lighting completely redefines the environment. A ship-wide “alarm” triggers synchronized lighting to pulse throughout the ship. Live performers and effects are highlighted in diegetic fashion without obvious theatrical lighting.
CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST. JAMES
Toronto, Canada
Designers: Andrew Mackinnon, Stephen Wolba — Gabriel Mackinnon
Owner: Cathedral Church of St James
Photos: Tom Arban Photography
Layers of light celebrate a historic cathedral within a busy urban streetscape, reinforcing the place of the church in the community and accelerating an ongoing neighborhood revitalization. The church was prioritized in a Lighting Master Plan in 2011, leading to a successful lighting mockup and grassroots support for the project. Cool white luminaires illuminate the oxidized copper spire, while warm light on the masonry composes a play of color to best reveal each material. The bell tower is visible for blocks, with lighting at each level accentuating the vertical scale. Overall massing is revealed with luminaires at each group of windows. At the human scale, wood entry doors are highlighted with a warm glow from behind trefoil arches.
Integrating modern lighting into a structure completed in 1853 was a technical challenge. Lighting is controlled over existing power lines, limiting impact to the heritage fabric, with all interventions mounted to mortar joints and fully reversible. Custom optics were developed, allowing reuse of historical fixture locations. Lighting scenes tailor the building’s presence to the tempo of the neighborhood. Lighting levels peak during evening hours and religious holidays, lowering overnight, and responding to the use of the grounds and adjacent park by the unhoused. The warm illumination reflected from the church provides a welcoming backdrop to a vibrant urban life.
HALLGRÍMSKIRKJA EXTERIOR LIGHTING
Reykjavik, Iceland
Designers: Örn Erlendsson, Guðjón L. Sigurðsson, Katerina Blahutova — Liska ehf.
Owner: Hallgrímskirkja
Photos: Örn Erlendsson
One of Iceland’s most photographed buildings, Hallgrímskirkja Church is visible from almost everywhere in the capital city and serves not just as a place of worship, but as a hub for cultural events for Icelanders and tourists alike. When the landmark cathedral underwent a renovation and redesign, lighting designers were tasked with bringing the building up to modern-day speed all while keeping luminaires hidden so as to respect the integrity of the church’s architecture and its surrounding areas. In response, designers implemented a lighting scheme featuring smart and LED fixtures along with a state-of-the-art control system.
Cool 4000K exterior general lighting grazes the cathedral’s dramatic façade, roof and tower, enhancing the structure’s materiality and dimensionality. The cool outer tones contrast with the warm tones inside the church to add another visual layer of interest. To celebrate religious, national and international occasions, special static and dynamic lighting scenes and animations are programmed into a calendar, but the system’s flexibility allows the scenes to also be controlled directly using DMX on a touchscreen interface. Finally, an automatic lighting cycle saves energy by adjusting to Nordic winter darkness with the use of dimming profiles, while a nighttime turn-off period helps to maintain the dark sky.
NOVARTIS PAVILLON – ZERO ENERGY MEDIA FAÇADE
Basel, Switzerland
Designers: Valentin Spiess, Reto Weljatschek, Michael Stucki, Gesine Gennrich, Erik Eggeling, Ivo Schüssler, Oliver Heyerick – iart-Studio for Media Architectures
Owner: Novartis
Photos: iart – Studio for Media Architectures, Laurids Jensen
Organic photovoltaics and LEDs combine to make the Novartis Pavillon’s circular façade a communicative skin that not only serves as a luminous icon in its city, but a green one at that. Host to a permanent multimedia exhibition, “Wonders of Science,” as well as meeting spaces and a café, its radiant outer skin acts as an interface between the building’s interior context and the surrounding urban setting.
In order for the building’s façade to consume an equal amount of energy as what it produces, designers mixed 10,000 diamond-shaped, semi-transparent solar modules with 30,000 embedded RGB and white LEDs. Light from the LEDs points outward and in toward the building, reflecting through the solar modules and allowing for colorful displays of digital science-themed artwork after sunset. During the daytime, moving text displays are created using only the white LEDs pointed away from the structure.
To keep both energy consumption and light pollution as low as possible, an algorithm ensures that the façade is just bright enough for content to be visible. The luminous intensity constantly adjusts based on the ambient light, and the contrast ratio is dynamic, as the LEDs are bi-directional and controlled independently toward the front and back of the building.
