Lucerne in Switzerland has just been awarded the first prize in the 2010 City.Light.People awards in recognition of excellence in urban lighting design.  See the competition organiser Philips’ website for the full story.

image courtesy philips.com

The strategy for Lucerne is to illuminate the five distinct precincts of the city in an individual way, enhancing the beauty and character of each.  Of course this didn’t happen by accident; it is all part of a carefully conceived lighting masterplan which has then been implemented by a council who understands the importance of the nighttime lit environment and the impact this has on residents, tourism, liveability, sustainability, etc.

So what can we learn from Lucerne? Perhaps we could encourage our local governments to create and then maintain lighting masterplans for our cities.  In my home town of Melbourne the lighting strategy is probably getting close to being a decade old now; it was excellent in it’s day but design thinking and technology have moved some considerable distance since then.  And once a plan is in place stick to it – don’t fall into the trap of trying to light everything, let some spaces rest and create the contrast for the interesting things.

One of the judges for City.Light.People was Ulrike Brandi, the excellent German lighting designer who summed up quite beautifully “The approach to install a [lighting] masterplan for the city helps to create an atmosphere for the whole city. The vision of ‘less is more’ respects darkness and the day-night-rhythm of the residents.”

These are my thoughts but what do you think?  Please feel free to comment as always; all comments will be posted for discussion…

On Tuesday night we were treated to a fantastic presentation by one of Avatar’s special effects designers Dan Lemmon from Weta Digital.  Hosted by the IALD, Dan’s talk was held at Hoyts cinema in Melbourne Central and attracted a crowd of around 200.  Dan took us through the development of visual effects over recent years and showed us some of his work on the Lord of the Rings and Avatar.  It is just incredible the amount of work that goes into a scene: they will have an image as a backdrop, insert some 3D hills, add a waterfall here, some mist there, a jungle full of trees, some flying banshees and then some animated semi-human creatures carrying machine guns.  It was especially interesting to see some of the ‘tricks of the trade’ where they get to modify some of the laws of physics to get the shot looking completely amazing.

This has to be one of the best presentations I have ever witnessed and I will never look at an animated film in quite the same way again.

Dan Lemmon in Melbourne

I’ve just been to Chicago attending a meeting with the IALD.

It’s cold in Chicago.  And I mean really cold.  Literally freezing.  As soon as I land I start regretting not bringing gloves.

The first 24 hours are spent in the hotel with the IALD staff, executive director, lawyer and fellow committee members.  Being new to the committee I have a lot to learn, but I soon get the hang of the procedural and bureaucratic imperatives that my committee is bound by.

Evening comes and we’re out to dinner, just a few blocks away.  Wow, it’s cold.  Lamenting the gloves omission more than ever.  Round a corner and then there it is in front of my very eyes: Millennium Park.  Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate sculpture, affectionately known as ‘the bean’ by locals.  And the Crown Fountain – one of Electrolight’s favourite reference images.  Both really cool – always so pleasing when something in real life is as good as the images.

Thankfully we reach the restaurant where I ordered the elk (as you do).  Surprisingly, it didn’t taste like chicken (more like liver, actually, which was unfortunate),

After completing our committee work the next we were free.  I attended the architectural walking tour which was fascinating.  Despite the onset of frostbite in my fingers (I swear they were turning black at the tips), we were guided around the best post-war buildings, the stand-out for me being the Mies federal plaza comprising two governmental high-rise buildings and a single-storey post office.

Mies apparently said that god’s in the detail and this was evident looking at the plaza.  The perfect composition of buildings, the volumes (the post office would fit perfectly in the lobby of the taller buildings), the arrangement of the windows, their frames lining up with floor tiles, other columns, seating, details on adjacent structures.  Nothing there that’s not needed, everything arranged perfectly.  Simplicity personified and beautiful beyond words.

Back to ‘the bean’ for a daytime look and now there’s a crowd of people around it.  It’s so shiny, literally like a mirror.  Children getting really excited being near it, everyone interacting with it like you wouldn’t believe.

It sits in Millennium Park which is such a good space.  Aside from the bean and Crown Fountain there’s also a very cool signature Frank Gehry building (an outdoor performance stage) just for good measure.  Oh, and an ice rink as well.  And  bridge to Renzo Piano’s Chicago Museum of Modern Art.

I reckon you can always tell a successful park by the clientele.  It was really busy but seemingly not with just tourists but plenty of locals who just seem to love it.  And what’s not to love?

I have been lucky enough to work alongside BLL and TCL on the early design work for Melbourne’s Harbour Esplanade project.  It’s easy to make comparisons to Millennium Park and to see first hand what’s possible when a government makes a serious investment in art, architecture and design.

Millennium Park - Crown Fountain

All about Mies

By far the coolest thing I've ever seen