Media Architecture Institute

The experience of light and lighting is multi-sensory: light does not only provide sight, but also enhances texture (that we feel), reveals shape (that we touch) and space (that we are in). Media architecture often is created using “hard” surfaces such as glass and composites, with little attention to the experience of texture and tactility. Luma Space 2010 is the result of an exploration of “soft” materials that are back lit using a pixelated LED grid.

Rogier van der  Heide:

The past six years, between architects UNStudio and myself a close collaboration has been established. UNStudio is an architecture office with great appreciation of light present in all of their work. The unique 51.3m high concave façade has got a lighting and product design conceived in a joint design process between the architects, my team at Arup and Alliance Optotek (AOP), the local lighting manufacturer. Using workshops and brainstorm sessions, the team developed a textured façade skin responding to the environment by reflecting daylight and showing its 3D nature at night with integrated lighting.

The refurbishment of 77 Des Voeux Road (now known as the Nexxus Building), transformed a 1960’s curtain wall relic into an ‘A’ grade modern and efficient commercial building in the heart of Central, Hong Kong. The sustainable theme was continued into the lighting design. Nexxus needed to make a statement, something that would stand out when viewed in the two parallel ‘concrete canyons’ of Des Voeux Road and Connaught Roads, between which the building is sandwiched.

Join the free guided tours with 6 Lighting Designers – in Partnership with Light+Building world-architetcs.com organizes guided tours with Gerd Pfarré, Gabriele Allendorf, Ulrike Brandi, Jan Dinnebier/Jan Blieske and Daniel Klages. The tours will start at the Outlook Lounge and last approximately 2 hours.

Each of them will show you individual highlights at Light+Building in Frankfurt from April 11 to 16.

Registration required!

Contact via: world-architects.com

The Balance Tower is part of the newly constructed pumping station built by the Spanish water supply company ATLL and is designed to conceal a water reservoir within it. Its media skin developed by ag4 is a stunning fusion of moving images with the extraordinary architecture of the building. This mediatecture, developed in line with the function of the building, is based on a future-oriented approach that aims for a sustainable and long-term impact. The concrete core of the structure spanning a surface of 768 m2 is covered in an exciting patchwork of metal and photovoltaic elements, creating an intelligent form of self-generated energy supply concealed within an aesthetic element. The LED profiles fit perfectly into the joints of the outer skin, emphasizing the vertical structure of the construction.

Just having finished construction shortly before the new year, New Sky Dome Building is one of Ban-Qiao City’s newest and unique apartment towers. The building’s media lighting system is comprised of customized flexible LED units housed within the key features of the facade: an array of 476 x 3.6m circles. Each circle is segmented into eight video pixels, with a system total of 3,808 pixels.

Traxon Technologies innovative lighting fixtures were used to turn a windmill into a sensational piece of LED art. Equipped with over 1,000 ultra bright Dot XL-9 lighting fixtures (9,000 LEDs) the world’s biggest revolving media screen displays a multitude of stunning colors as well as medium-resolution video content. Challenged by the difficult winter-weather conditions as well as the implementation of an installation on a constantly rotating object, artist Michael Pendry chose Traxon as partner for realizing this spectacular project due to its innovative and customizable lighting solutions. IP67-rated the Dot XL offers exactly the flexibility needed for this demanding project. Available with 3, 6 or 9 high performance LEDs per dot casing the single controllable dots are mounted on an elastic cable with customizable pitch offering the possibility of an installation on almost any surface or three-dimensional shape. Furthermore the Dot XL has a robust casing that ensures full outdoor capability.

Controllable by DMX as well as DVI input signals Traxon’s Dot XL displays full color lighting effects and spectacular video animations. Visible from a distance of up to 30 kilometers the LED windmill is a pioneering installation and a symbol for green energy, due to Traxon’s cutting-edge innovation using only as much electricity as one hair dryer or two water kettles.

The University of Liverpool was enthusiastic about the idea of illuminating the facade of their Active Learning Laboratory using endless artistic colour scenes to highlight the building’s presence. They wanted to make a statement that the University was not only providing a new education building with first class facilities, but also one which would advertise itself to the City of Liverpool and to the wider audience in an area which surrounds the city from a far. There is also lot of competition to attract students between the University of Liverpool and John Moore’s University and the client wanted this building to “outshine the competition.” Being located next to the Roman Catholic Cathedral, the highest landmark in the City, Arup Lighting proposed the use of rich vibrant, multi coloured images to “paint” the facades with light in order to raise theprofile of the University at night.

Imagine that pixels could fly out of your computer screen and create an immersive, luminous cloud capable of displaying digital information in three-dimensional space. This is the vision beyond Flyfire, a new project put together by researchers at MIT’s SENSEable City Lab and Aerospace Robotics and Embedded Systems Laboratory (ARES Lab). Flyfire uses a large number of remotely controlled, self-organizing “micro helicopters”. Each helicopter contains small LEDs and acts as a smart pixel. Through digitally controlled movements, the helicopters perform elaborate and synchronized choreographies, generating a unique free-form display in three-dimensional space. “It’s like when Winnie the Pooh hits a beehive: a swarm of bees comes out and chases him while changing its configuration to resemble a beast,” said E Roon Kang, a research fellow at the SENSEable City Lab who is leading the project. “In Flyfire, each bee is essentially a pixel that emits colored light and reconfigures itself into different forms.”

Open Up is an advanced project development workshop for the digital facade of Medialab-Prado. From February 9 through 23, working groups will develop selected projects in a collaborative way. The event includes theoretical activities February 9, 10 and 16 with lectures by the teachers of the workshop and also Erkki Huhtamo and Jennifer Steimkamp.