Archinect - News

Iconic Parisian cathedral transformed into ‘sensory nighttime exploration’ by multimedia company Moment Factory

2023-10-26T12:53:00-04:00

Montreal-based Moment Factory has completed an immersive multimedia experience inside the iconic Dôme des Invalides in Paris. The project, titled 'AURA Invalides,' consists of a 50-minute experience combining video mapping, lighting, special effects, orchestral music, and sound design to celebrate the building’s architectural and historical heritage.

Image credit: Moment Factory

Conceived in 2019 by cultural operator Cultival in collaboration with Musée de l’Armée, the project seeks to create a “sensory nighttime exploration” in which visitors wander through the Dôme des Invalides and its six chapels guided by light. The experience is divided into three acts, each portraying a distinct facet of the site: “its construction, the memories it harbors, and its power to inspire one and all.”

Image credit: Moment Factory

To project an experience onto the main dome, which measures 295 feet high and 98 feet at its smallest diameter, the t...

University of Toronto researchers develop a fluid-based light filtering technology to help with heating, cooling and lighting in buildings

2023-03-17T18:20:00-04:00

A new prototype multilayered fluid window system devised by researchers at the University of Toronto may have the potential to be an effective tool in the push toward greater sustainability in the building industry, according to their research published in the national academy of sciences journal PNAS.

The technology is based on principles derived from animal biology and was developed by recent mechanical engineering master’s graduate Raphael Kay with the help of Associate Professor Ben Hatton and his team over a period of years, including Ph.D. candidate Charlie Katrycz and Alstan Jakubiec, an assistant professor in the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design

The prototypes work by controlling the type and distribution of solar energy that enters a building through its envelope, discerning between the wavelengths to filter out infrared heat while retaining the beneficial illumination needed to keep a building’s carbon footprint relatively low by avoiding arti...

A closer look at HAKUTEN's light installation [Prism], an Architecture MasterPrize winner

2021-12-08T16:51:00-05:00

The light and air art installation [Prism] by Japanese studio HAKUTEN was recently named as one of the “Best of the Best” winners of the 2021 Architecture MasterPrize.

Situated on an old military installation in Kanagawa Prefecture called Sarushima, the installation refracts light into a colorful array to create a map of the island’s coastal outline using its extant network of gun batteries as nodes that connect each ray of light in a dazzling display meant to evoke the memory of its past historic uses.

[Prism] © Kim Dong-Gyu

Visitors could immerse themselves in the light-saturated sand while taking in views of nearby Yokosuka City as they reflect on the physical space and temporal nature of the site.

According to the architects: “This work does not seek to glorify war. HAKUTEN simply believes that it is important to preserve memories of the past through various expressions of art and design that prevent them from being forgotten,” adding that they wish to “spr...

Researchers create ultra-white paint that could cool buildings

2021-04-16T17:54:00-04:00

Scientists in the US have developed a paint significantly "whiter than the whitest paint currently available". Tests carried out by researchers at Purdue University on their "ultra-white" paint showed it reflected more than 98% of sunlight. That suggests, the scientists say, that it could help save energy and fight climate change.

The paint's whiteness opens up a range of cooling features that, applied at an industrial scale, could limit the built environment's contributing effect to global warming and its dependency on traditional air conditioning.

"If you were to use this paint to cover a roof area of about 1,000 square feet, we estimate that you could get a cooling power of 10 kilowatts. That’s more powerful than the central air conditioners used by most houses," predicts Xiulin Ruan, the Purdue professor of mechanical engineering, who led the research.

An infrared camera shows how a sample of the whitest white paint (the dark purple square in the middle) actually cools the board below ambient temperature. Credit: Purdue University/Joseph Peoples.

"Using high-accuracy temperature reading equipment called thermocouples, the researchers demonstrated outdoors that the paint can keep surfaces 19 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than their ambient surroundings at night," claims the study. "It can also cool surfaces 8 d...

SOFTlab designs a mesmerizing public installation that pays homage to a classic lighthouse in Alexandria, Virginia

2019-01-24T20:10:00-05:00

Located along the Potomac River in the city of Alexandria, Virginia an open circled public installation will draw visitors into its immersive and interactive display. Michael Szivos, the founder of SOFTlab design studio, took inspiration from local lighthouses to create a 25ft in diameter and 8ft high public installation. The New York-based design studio uses color and light to create Mirror Mirror. According to Szivos "Mirror Mirror will act as a beacon, beckoning visitors to venture into the new King Street Park at the Waterfront, interact with the artwork and explore and enjoy the new public plaza and civic space."

Mirror Mirror, Image © SOFTlab

Mirror Mirror will be the first commissioned art piece for Alexandria's Site/See: New Views in Old Town initiative. The annual series is set to display temporary installations that promote visitor attraction and foster public interaction within Alexandria's rich waterfront views. Through the use of light reflection and refraction, Mirror M...

New York-based Hou de Sousa creates Prismatic, a kaleidoscope spectacle

2018-12-10T14:13:00-05:00

If you find yourself in Washington, DC in the upcoming month, a spectacle of light, color, and form finds a temporary home in Georgetown Waterfront Park. Designed specifically for the park, New York-based architecture and design office Hou de Sosa creates a mesmerizing installation that provides a kaleidoscope effect. With the design process occurring in three phases, the duo uses a single box celluated by prisms starting from a center point to mimic the contextual features of the area. This technique allows for an array of perspectives that passersby can experience.

Prismatic © Hou de Sousa

Appropriately named, Prismatic is an experience that allows for the public to immerse and explore within the multi-angular form. Using a moiré effect, the sculpture consists of iridescent cords woven through steel lattice. The gaps between the polychromatic cords are the key to creating this dynamic visual effect. Using the foreground as a contributing factor to the piece, visitors are able to wa...

Singapore's Marina Bay Sands gets a spiffy state-of-the-art laser and water show

2017-06-01T14:05:00-04:00

Marina Bay Sands is set to unveil ‘Spectra’, a new entertainment experience with state-of-the-art light and water show in June. The city skyline will glimmer with a kaleidoscope of colours and lights each night with Spectra’s free-to-public outdoor light and water show displayed over the water at the Event Plaza along the promenade. Combining an array of state-of-the-art lasers, lighting, water effects and projections, the show promises to be a multimedia extravaganza [...].

"The show will also boast specially developed underwater LED fixtures that allow lights to show perfect whites and richer colour hues. Other state-of-the-art technology used in Spectra include a synchronisation software called timecode, which enables the soundtrack to trigger, down to the millisecond, all of the lasers, lighting, projections and water effects in harmony each time."

h/t CTBUH

Watch David Adjaye and James Turrell discuss light, space, and architecture

2016-10-14T18:40:00-04:00

Last week, the White House held its very own arts and culture festival in D.C., South by South Lawn (SXSL). Organizers arranged a list of panel discussions and programs that brought together a diverse troupe of creatives for a "festival of ideas, art, and action.” SXSL kicked off with a conversation between illustrious light artist James Turrell and award-winning architect David Adjaye, which was streamed live on The Creators Project’s Facebook Page.

"Over the course of their chat, which was moderated by LACMA director Michael Govan, the two artists unpacked their general philosophies on art, light, space, and culture, and discussed some of the influences that have driven their processes and works."

Video via The Creators Project.

LED streetlights may contribute to 'serious health conditions' says AMA, prompting cities to re-evaluate

2016-09-26T13:16:00-04:00

high-intensity LED streetlights ... emit unseen blue light that can disturb sleep rhythms and possibly increase the risk of serious health conditions, including cancer and cardiovascular disease. [...] Some [researchers] noted that exposure to the blue-rich LED outdoor lights might decrease people’s secretion of the hormone melatonin. Secreted at night, melatonin helps balance the reproductive, thyroid and adrenal hormones and regulates the body’s circadian rhythm of sleeping and waking.

While the American Medical Association cautions cities to re-evaluate their use of high-intensity LED lights for health reasons, others have pointed out that most televisions and computers also emit the blue light wavelength found to be potentially harmful. Aside from human health concerns, LEDs are also "a major contributor" to anthropogenic light pollution in the night sky.

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Prepare to soon spot the blackest of black materials in architecture

2016-03-08T13:56:00-05:00

The British company developing the uses of a super black, light absorbent material called Vantablack S-VIS is working with leading architects as well as the British artist Anish Kapoor. The founder and chief technology officer of Surrey NanoSystems, Ben Jensen, says that the company is working with “some large and well respected global architects,” and that the coating is already available for “suitable applications”. He declined to name the architects involved “due to prior agreements”.

Rejoice aesthetes! New incandescent bulbs are now more efficient than LED

2016-01-14T16:51:00-05:00

Researchers at MIT have shown that by surrounding the filament with a special crystal structure in the glass they can bounce back the energy which is usually lost in heat, while still allowing the light through... Usually traditional light bulbs are only about five per cent efficient, with 95 per cent of the energy being lost to the atmosphere. In comparison LED or florescent bulbs manage around 14% efficiency. But the scientists believe that the new bulb could reach efficiency levels of 40%

Developer of SOM-designed Nanjing skyscraper found guilty of depriving nearby residents of precious sunlight

2015-12-08T13:40:00-05:00

The developers of the 450-meter high Zifeng Tower in Nanjing have been found guilty of robbing the surrounding neighborhood of precious sunshine, and will have to compensate residents accordingly. [...] The 89-story Zifeng Tower was designed by American architectural firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. It is the tallest building in Nanjing, fourth tallest in China and 12 tallest in the world.

Crowded skies: Sunlight as the new amenity for the super rich

2015-05-14T18:37:00-04:00

[...] shadows even turn light into another medium of inequality. Light becomes a resource that can be bought by the wealthy, eclipsed for the poor. [...] multimillion-dollar apartments in the sky will darken parts of the park a mile away. Enjoyment of the park in the park – a notably free activity in a high-cost city – will be dimmed a little to give billionaires views of it from above.

NBBJ proposes strategy for creating skyscrapers that don't cast shadows

2015-03-17T17:43:00-04:00

They used computer modeling to design a pair of buildings, one of which works like a gigantic, curved mirror. The glass surface of the northernmost building reflects light down into the shadow cast by its southern partner. And the carefully defined curve of that glass allows the reflected light to follow the shadow throughout the day.

As Manhattan grows supertaller, its shadows are getting superlonger

2015-01-19T13:11:00-05:00

But all New Yorkers are losing familiar vistas, and some are losing light and air, as supertall buildings sprout like beanstalks in midtown Manhattan. There are a dozen such “supertalls” – buildings of 1,000 feet or higher – in the construction or planning stages. And the buildings are not, as in Dubai or Shanghai’s Pudong district, being constructed where nothing else had stood. They are, instead, crowding into already dense neighbourhoods where light and air are at a premium [...].

INsite by Luftwerk turns Mies' Farnsworth House inside-out with light and sound

2014-05-15T13:23:00-04:00

Whether you're a diehard Miesian fan or could care less about the modernist architecture canon, we've heard of ol' Farnsworth time and time again since its completion in 1951 in Plano, Illinois. But Chicago-based artists Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero of Luftwerk want the public to see the historic Farnsworth House in a whole new light — literally — with their digital installation project called INsite.

INsite highlights the house's characteristic clean lines through site-specific digital video projections and original music compositions, thus rendering it into a new structure of light, sound, and space. In addition to recent preservation efforts to protect the Farnsworth from more floodwater damage in the future, INsite could help revive public interest in an eye-catching way that is suitable for these tech-friendly times.

Illuminating modern architecture landmarks is nothing new for Gallero and Bachmaier, who have collaborated with video designer and programmer Liviu Pasare and co...

Welcome to the permanent dusk: Sunlight in cities is an endangered species

2014-04-28T14:09:00-04:00

As American cities grow taller and denser — and most everyone agrees that they must — natural light becomes a more precious commodity. Does that mean it should be regulated like one? Or would preserving current sun patterns — so-called “solar rights” — grind real estate development to a halt? Put simply: Should Americans, in their homes and in their cities, have a right to light?

Bright nights at TED2014 Vancouver with Chrome-powered aerial sculpture

2014-03-19T17:47:00-04:00

Donning a spectrum of colors and moving beams of light, the "Unnumbered Sparks" installation comes to life every night as it hovers near the site of the 30th anniversary TED2014 world conference in downtown Vancouver, Canada.

Artist Janet Echelman and director of the Google Data Art Group Aaron Koblin -- who both spoke at TED2011 -- collaborated in designing the aerial sculpture just in time for TED2014. Echelman officially introduced the work earlier this week at the conference.

The 745-foot net, which is powered by Google Chrome and other modern web technologies, can be choreographed by visitors using their smartphones or tablets to "paint" the sculpture in real time.

Visitors in the area will be able to interact with Unnumbered Sparks every night until Saturday, March 22.

Check out the video below to see the creative process behind the piece.

Turning cities into magical playgrounds

2013-12-10T12:35:00-05:00

Called Lumiere, it's a four-day festival expected to attract tens of thousands of spectators to see the city's historic cathedrals, walls, bridges and squares illuminated by splashes of light. Projects range from LED and neon sculptures to large-scale projections by leading artists and lighting designers from Ireland and beyond.

Coming this June: James Turrell Reimagines FLW’s Guggenheim Rotunda

2013-05-20T17:45:00-04:00

In his first solo exhibition in a New York museum since 1980, American artist James Turrell sets out to reimagine the iconic rotunda of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum in a dramatic transformation. The luminous and immersive site-specific work, Aten Reign, will be part of the upcoming exhibition James Turrell at NYC's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum which opens on June 21, 2013.

New technology pipes sunlight into windowless rooms

2012-11-29T14:13:00-05:00

A mirror tracks the sun throughout the day, reflecting its rays onto a parabolic dish, which then focuses the reflected daylight into a small ‘light pipe’ aperture. The concentrated light then travels through a series of relay lenses “over any distance and in any direction”, according to the company. A diffuser ensures that light evenly reaches the desired areas.

"YOUR TEXT HERE" by Marcos Zotes

2012-11-07T20:26:00-05:00

You may recall Marcos Zotes from his Rafmögnuð Náttúra light installation in Iceland that we previously featured here on Archinect. He has just shared with us his latest project, "YOUR TEXT HERE"...

The city is constantly telling us what to do, what to think, and how to act. Using explicit visual language, a multiplicity of billboards, signs, images and symbols invade our public spaces in order to tell us something. YOUR TEXT HERE is a project that challenges this condition: Citizens are given the opportunity to change their role as receivers of information in order become the authors. The way it works is simple: you submit an anonymous text message in a website through your mobile phone, and in turn it is automatically projected at large scale onto the façade of a building.

"Public space is not something that is given or inherited, it must be fought for and defended constantly" says Marcos Zotes.

YOUR TEXT HERE is a participatory, site-specific light installation that...

Artist Leo Villareal's "Buckyball" installation to light up Madison Square Park

2012-10-19T13:59:00-04:00

Madison Square Park Conservancy's Mad. Sq. Art announces a new, monumental sculpture by distinguished artist Leo Villareal. Largely inspired by the work of Buckminster Fuller, Villareal’s BUCKYBALL will apply concepts of geometry and mathematical relationships within a towering 30-foot tall, illuminated sculpture. The site-specific work will remain on view daily from October 25, 2012 through February 2013 in Madison Square Park.

A commission of the Mad. Sq. Art program, Villareal’s BUCKYBALL will feature two nested, geodesic sculptural spheres comprised of 180 LED tubes arranged in a series of pentagons and hexagons, known as a “Fullerene,” referring to the form’s discovery by Buckminster Fuller. Individual pixels located every 1.2 inches along the tubes are each capable of displaying 16 million distinct colors and will be specifically tuned by the artist’s own software, creating a subtle and sophisticated palette to enliven the Park. Relying on LED technologies driven by chance...

Dune X exhibition at the 18th Biennale of Sydney

2012-07-17T11:35:00-04:00

Constructed on Sydney’s Harbour’s Cockatoo Island, the interactive 42 meter-long landscape installation, entitled Dune, is composed of hundreds of fibres that brighten according to human sounds in what Roosegaarde describes as “techno-poetry”.

Dune X is an interactive landscape of light for the 18th Biennale of Sydney that visibly reacts to the behavior of people that come into close proximity. Hundreds of sensors detect motion, and optical fibers dim and brighten in response to the movements of people passing by.

Dune X is being exhibited at the dark Dogleg tunnels on Cockatoo Island in Sydney. For those unable to visit, Studio Roosegaarde made a video, especially for the Biennale of Sydney, that is supposed to give an impression of what to expect with 'Dune X'. The movie (below) resembles a real-life ‘Alice in techno-land' and is displayed all around Sydney during the Biennale.

Studio Roosegaarde (Rotterdam-The Netherlands) is the social design lab of artist and architect Daan Roosegaarde. By creating interactive designs that instinctively respond to sound and movement, Roosegaarde explores the dawn of a new nature that is evolving from technological innovations. The studio is well known for its awarded interactiv...

Police Arrest Artist Takeshi Miyakawa, Thinking Tribute Was Fake Bomb

2012-05-22T19:02:00-04:00

The artist intended it to be a display of his love for the city: white plastic bags stamped with the “I ♥ NY” logo lighted from within and glowing moonlike from lampposts and trees in Brooklyn and beyond. Almost immediately, the installation attracted attention, though probably not the kind the artist, Takeshi Miyakawa, expected.

"Mr. Miyakawa also worked for years as a model-maker for the architect Rafael Viñoly, Mr. Lim added."

Many hands will make lights work

2012-05-09T17:08:00-04:00

IN THE hands of Urbanscreen, buildings become toys in a surreal world in which Salvador Dali or Lewis Carroll's Alice would feel at home. Structures get torn apart, turned to ice or covered with ants and are made to disintegrate, pulsate, morph into strange shapes or become a gigantic pinball machine.

Surface Tension Lamp by Front

2012-04-16T19:50:00-04:00

A bubble is brief, and bursts at your touch. But while it lasts, it catches the light and reflects the room like a multi-coloured temporary structure. We wanted to create a constantly changing lamp that combines the most ephemeral of lampshades with an LED light source that will last for 50000 hours. In the time it takes the LED to burn out, the lamp will have had 3 million different globe shades.

bracket [goes soft]: Buoyant Light

2012-04-16T18:24:00-04:00

In anticipation of this week's event, Publish Or... bracket [GOES SOFT], we will be showcasing a piece from the book each day this week. We hope to see you this Thursday!

Buoyant Light
by Claire Lubell and Virginia Fernandez

The Canadian Arctic is a vast landscape, dotted with remote communities whose lives depend on natural cycles for subsistence. While imagining widespread distribution, Buoyant Light is sited in Igloolik, an Inuit community of 1600 at 70 degrees North with active creative and research programs. Like much of the Arctic, Igloolik is witness to acute changes in permafrost, sea levels and ice. As an island, it is particularly vulnerable to unreliable freeze-thaw cycles of the sea which directly affects safe hunting and traveling.

Image: View of Igloolik at night, illuminated on land and water by a distributed series of buoyant lights.

Buoyant Light consists of a balloon and a buoy which serve a dual function: to harvest solar energy, providing Iglooli...

Rafmögnuð Náttúra By Marcos Zotes

2012-04-06T14:49:00-04:00

Marcos Zotes has shared with us his winning light installation for the Reykjavik Winter Lights Festival 2012.

Photo by Ragnar Th Sigurdsson

Marcos Zotes, winner of the Reykjavik Winter Lights Festival 2012, and Chris Jordan presented Rafmögnuð Náttúra in Reykjavik, Iceland, as the main event for the festival in February. The work consists of a temporary, site-specific installation that appropriates the facade of Hallgrímskirkja church with a large video-mapping projection. The aim is to transform the static condition of this iconic landmark into a dynamic, engaging and participatory visual experience, and to intervene by socially activating its surrounding public space.

Photo by Pétur Már Gunnarsson

Marcos explains: “I am fascinated with finding new ways to interact with the existing urban environment. I feel the city is there for us at our entire disposal, and we must reclaim its public spaces and urban structures in ways that exceed the limited uses for which they were o...

Into the Heart of Lightness

2012-01-15T13:44:00-05:00

Works like the infinity room...are not designed with the end purpose of creating illusion or destabilizing perception. The works...use those things as tools to enable an experience of light and space in a much more direct way than is normally possible, “without...the diminishing effect of a learned associative response to explain away” the essence of what is being seen.