Lighting up cultural venues

Wherever it is applied, thoughtfully implemented lighting design holds the power to dramatically enhance our experience of architectural spaces – not least in our selection of recent cultural venue projects.

By PROL and Peter Smisek

March 6, 2022 | 11:00 pm CUT

For its Cultural Tourist Center project in Xinxiang, China, lighting consultants PROL have installed luminaries between two glass layers, creating a subtle, lantern-like effect. Photos: TOPIA Vision

Light, whether artificial or natural, is an important component of any architectural space – it can give warmth, emphasise different spatial features and create conditions for different activities and uses. Today, lighting designers have a vast range of tools to create interior and exterior lighting schemes that bring drama and impact to their projects.

Pfarré Lighting Design combines a dark blue ceiling with warm white lights to create a feeling of shelter in the foyer of Stuttgart's Liederhalle Kultur- und Kongreszentrum cultural venue. Photos: Florian Selig, Berlin

In Stuttgart's Liederhalle Kultur- und Kongresszentrum, Pfarré Lighting Design has redesigned the existing ceiling of the building's main foyers to create a more inviting, intimate space, while providing the interior with an even level of illumination throughout. The ceiling, now painted a sumptuous dark blue, features energy-efficient, precision LED luminaries, whose light reflects off the floor, while LED lines follow the edges of the multilevel void, emphasising the cultural centre's grand architecture.

Ice Cubes Cultural Tourist Centre in Xinjiang uses a subtle illumination scheme designed by PROL to highlight its glacial form. Photos: TOPIA Vision

Designed as a tourist information point and a cultural venue for China's winter resorts in Xinjiang, the Ice Cubes Cultural Tourist Centre has been designed to resemble a pile of eleven stacked ice cubes. The double-leaf all-glass facade features a digital frost-patterned print, and lets in plenty of natural light during the day while presenting an alluring, ice-like exterior. For night-time illumination, lighting consultants PROL have installed luminaries between the two glass layers, which create a subtle, lantern-like effect with additional emphasis on the illuminated vertices. The cubes also feature more colourful blue and purple luminaires that can be used to create a more surreal, otherworldly experience.

L'Observatoire International's lighting scheme of the Audrey Irmas Pavilion highlights its sculptural form and the spatial voids created by the main functional spaces. Photos: © Jason O Rear

Adjacent to LA's Wilshire Boulevard Temple, OMA’s Audrey Irmas Pavilion is a new cultural centre for the city's Jewish community and features a lighting scheme conceived by lighting designers L'Observatoire International. The pavilion's wood-panelled ground floor banquet room is illuminated with warm orange light, while the event spaces upstairs are lit using green and blue hues. The use of coloured glass further enhances the different atmospheres, and while the inside uses a mixture of accent and diffuse lighting, the exterior is washed in a soft, even light to highlight the building's sculptural shape.

Lam Partners' illumination scheme for Winnipeg Art Gallery: Qaumajuq uses adjustable luminaries to provide accent lighting and complement the natural light from the skylights. Photos: Lindsay Reid

Winnipeg Art Gallery: Qaumajuq is a new museum wing dedicated to the art of First Nations peoples, designed by Michael Maltzan. Featuring a central, double-height space with an expansive mezzanine, the building features a lighting scheme by Lam Partners. Twenty-two conical skylights bring daylight to the interior and the adjustable accent lighting emphasises the building's graceful curves and the artwork within.

Lighting up cultural venues

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