Of the 15 award winners representing architectural lighting design projects at the 29th Annual International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) International Lighting Design Awards, the highest point score winner across all categories was Daglicht & Vorm for the “Broken Light” public space lighting design in Rotterdam, Netherlands. In addition to receiving an Award of Excellence for their project, Rudolf Teunissen accepted the IALD Radiance Award for Excellence in Lighting Design at a presentation held 10 May at the Renaissance Hotel in Las Vegas, NV USA.
Broken Light was developed in response to a design competition for Rotterdam’s Katendrecht neighborhood. Teunissen and lighting design partner Marinus van der Voorden of Daglicht & Vorm proposed an immersive experience using light as art to reflect the neighborhood’s unseemly past. “A very unconventional and original solution to an every-day situation,” one judge praised of the project. “Lighting can be fun!”
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Katendrecht, also known as the Cape, had been home to sailors, pirates, prostitutes and other unsavory individuals from its establishment in 1895 through approximately 1980, when the last harbor activities moved on to bigger, newer harbors along the along the Nieuwe Waterweg. Since then, the area has completely transformed itself into an appealing residential district.
Broken Light partly took over the public lighting and transformed the look and feel of Atjehstraat, creating an interior, cathedral-like space. Tall columns rise up along facades, reaching for the sky. Static and tight, the beams are balanced by pools of light reflecting on the ground.
What looks like graffiti from above pedestrians experience as pools of light and dark. The light motifs are inspired by flowers and birds, and are conveyed by the light system as high-yield light effects and patterns.
“Especially impressive are the adjustable fixtures, with moving shutters and patterns, providing individual solutions for the different lighting challenges along the street,” one judge commented. Vertical and horizontal projections are operated by one lamp in a fitting situated at a height of 6 meters. An extra standard road light armature has also been added. The designers used the system to vary the size, pattern and intensity of projections to customize space between windows, creating glare-free street lighting. The optical system and luminaire are custom made.
One judge summed up the final design as “technically fascinating, and an equally ambitious solution to an often mundane lighting commission.”
Broken Light has rejuvenated a street that until a few years ago was rife with crime. It exists as a social sculpture for the street’s residents, who literally and figuratively have welcomed a little light into the neighborhood.
The IALD Lighting Design Awards program, established in 1983, honors lighting projects that display high aesthetic achievement backed by technical expertise. A panel of award-winning lighting designers, architects and interior designers review the projects.
More info on www.brokenlight.org
Credits
Lighting Design: Rudolf Teunissen and Marinus Van Der Voorden, Daglicht & Vorm
Industrial Design: Thomas Linders, Max Designers
Roadlight Calculation: Ronald Vredenborg, Modernista
Architecture: Commune Rotterdam
Commissioner: DSPS/DE PLAYER, Center Arts & Pact Op Zuid Rotterdam
Photography: © Rudolf Teunissen, © Hans Wilschut, and © Lieselot IJzendoorn
Source: www.iald.org
