ALINGSAS, Sweden – Martin Professional provided lighting equipment for Lights In Alingsas 2011, an urban lighting exhibition that includes work by international students of lighting design and architecture. A combined effort between the municipality of Alingsas and the Professional Lighting Designers’ Association, many Martin fixtures were used to light structures such as Martin’s Exterior 400 luminaires and Professional Exterior 1200 Image Projectors.
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Martin Luminaires Shed Light on Lights in Alingsas 2011
Every October since 2000, leading lighting designers have been invited to Alingsas, Sweden, to work with international students of lighting design and architecture to illuminate public areas of the city. Martin Professional has been an active participant and equipment sponsor of Lights in Alingsas for several years now (also with an onsite technician) and took part in the associated lighting conference as well.
The urban lighting exhibition has grown to become a large lighting event in public spaces in Northern Europe. Following a route through the town, visitors get the opportunity to experience top quality architectural lighting as dark areas of the city are transformed into visually interesting lighting installations.
The Lights in Alingsas project is a collaboration between the municipality of Alingsas and the Professional Lighting Designers’ Association (PLDA). Martin Professional worked with designers Rafael Gallego of design studio Áureolighting, Stefan Graf, design director at Illuminart, and Jari Vuorinen on three of this year’s workshop installations.
The Parish Hall
In the heart of Alingsas lies a characteristic Northern European church with a not so characteristic, modern parish hall attachment that struggles for recognition after sundown. Designed by one of Sweden’s most famous architects, Carl Nyrén, spill light from nearby street poles is the only light on its classic white facade.
Taking into consideration the community building and the surrounding area, Spanish lighting designer Rafael Gallego focused on the contrast between the older church and the newer architecture of the parish hall. Using dynamic light to highlight this contrast, Gallego illuminated the church tower in a quiet, calming wash of blue from Martin Exterior 400 LED luminaires, some projecting across 40 meters, while additional Exterior 400s painted the intriguing architecture of the parish hall in dynamic shades of red.
The goal was to enunciate the duality of the architecture to surprise visitors by doing something unexpected with light, says Gallego. Although he sought to produce an interesting lighting design, it was also important for Gallego to maintain design congruency, to show respect for the church and satisfy the client’s needs.
The Church
Standing proud and elegant, and a short walk from the parish hall, is the town’s landmark church with nave and spire that can be seen from across Alingsas – at least during the day. The lighting team, headed by American lighting designer Stefan Graf, developed a lighting design based on six feelings they felt best describe the church: peaceful, welcoming, embracing, magical, mystical and monumental. They also defined qualities of light that they wanted to include in their design, namely movement, color, contrast, brightness and sparkle.
Graf turned to Martin Professional Exterior 1200 Image Projectors to fulfill many of those qualities, especially, he says, movement, by projecting slowly moving pattern onto the façade of the church to give it texture, mimicking the movement found in nature. Real-life leaf projection from a swaying tree above the entrance of the church complemented Graf’s diffused, subtle pattern and movement from the Exterior 1200s perfectly, a “happy accident,” he admitted. Working alongside the Exterior 1200s, illuminating the roof and bell tower of the church, were Martin Exterior 600 luminaires. With a background sound track helping to create an all-encompassing atmosphere, the installation was complete.
A third area, The Avenue, also incorporated projection from Exterior 1200 Image Projectors. Finnish lighting designer Jari Vuorinen used the 1200 watt projectors to light trees in a play of shadow and light while creating a safer environment for pedestrians and cyclists at night.
