A window to the night. The installation questions the principle of a facad illumination in which the building, the architecture always remains passive. Now the building itself becomes the actor; it plays with its own facade. The inversion of the folding shutters into a light-giving element creates a new window of the night. A vertical horizon is emerging.

The intervention may be small, the content is not... A temporary light installation was created on the facade of the “Kunstverein Böblingen”. The building is prominently located on the “Schlossberg” and in the stream of visitors through the city center. The installation questions the principle of a facade illumination in which the building, the architecture always remains passive. Now the building itself becomes the actor; it plays with its own facade. The inversion of the folding shutters into a light-giving element creates a new window of the night. The shutters can be opened and closed gently by a specialy built construction with controllable motors. The well-hidden light sources are controlled synchronously. Usually the shutters appear only in two states: open or closed - almost digital. Never occupying the 'swinging space' that would expand the building envelope, like breathing in an out. The installation creates exactly these intermediate states through an artificial breath of wind. The interplay of light color and movement creates infinite nuances between open and closed. A vertical horizon is emerging.

https://vimeo.com/462393234

https://studioteilchenwelle.de/building-dawn/

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Details

Building or project owner : facade of the "Art association Böblingen"

Project artist/ concept/ design/ planning : Stefan Lotze

Light design : studioteilchenwelle

Light hardware (LED hardware) : custom LED Profile, RGBW Leds

Lighting control software : e:cue LAS

Descriptions

Kind of light creation : Light profiles with diffusor covers are attached to two opposite shutters on the side facing the wall. An RGB-W configuration was chosen, not for a colorful play of colors, but to shift warm white into the red area and cold white into the blue area. The colors of twilight. The light emission faces the facade and is taken out of the visitors' field of vision with a glare angle to the side. Only the light on the facade is visible. A mock-up of the shutters was built to test and design the light distribution and mixing that is generated by the movement. The shutters were to be controlled gently, synchronized with the coloring. The heart of the mechanism are stepper motors, controlled via DMX using a custom circiut board. So, it was possible to program light and movement together via the DMX lighting control software E:CUE LAS.

Urban situation : The building is prominently located on the “Schlossberg” and in the stream of visitors through the city center.

Participatory architecture & urban interaction

Mediacredits

studioteilchenwelle

studioteilchenwelle

studioteilchenwelle

studioteilchenwelle

studioteilchenwelle

studioteilchenwelle

studioteilchenwelle