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W
andering around Hong Kong at night is
like visiting the world of Blade Runner,
the 1982 neo-noir science fiction film by
Ridley Scott.
Thousands of people pack the streets, and
immense modern buildings tower up into the sky.
Property is so expensive that the only way to make
anything anyone can afford is to add levels.
You may remember the opening to Blade
Runner, as you fly into the city with humongous
visual advertising displays flickering on the sides
of buildings?
That –minus the flying cars – is Hong Kong today.
Every evening, tens of thousands gather on the
waterfront along the key and look-
ing across Victoria Bay. At 8pm, the
Symphony of
Lights
begins; the world’s largest permanent light
and sound show.
Forty-seven buildings, on both sides of Victo-
ria Harbour, participate in the display. Each has
wrapped its building in a combination of lasers,
searchlights, LEDs and projection lighting. The
show itself has five movements: awakening, en-
ergy, heritage, partnership and celebration.
Laservision, the company behind the Hong
Kong Symphony of Light, says that for one of the
buildings it wired up – Canon in Kowloon – it used,
“6WLED dots, each containing six LEDs, two each
in red, blue and green”.
Lighting up the entire building required, “A to-
tal of 14 rows of LED dots, with 30 dots per row,
installed along each of the building’s external ribs.
The design solves light trespass and light pollution
issues that are problematic in illuminating glass
surfaces.”
The fixtures have an expected lifetime of about
75 000 hours, and use about 12.5 kWhr at a cost
of about $2.00 an hour.
The LED luminaires consume little energy, and
the resolution required is not the super-pixel level
of a mobile phone. Since people are usually viewing
buildings from hundreds of metres away, LED dots
can be quite spread out. Similarly, directed lighting
reduces stray light, and control systems ensure
minimum energy consumption.
At these low energy consumption levels, many
companies power their façade lighting with solar
panels on the roof.
“The revolutionary development of LEDs has
opened up fresh design approaches for façade
lighting. The controllability of the brightness and
light colour of LED light sources, together with their
diverse optical characteristics, aremaking innovative
technical lighting solutions possible. For example,
façade lighting can be realised from inside a building
thanks to the compact dimensions of LEDs. Rather
than flooding façades with light, it is now possible
to integrate light sources into the architecture,” says
Stefan Hofmann, a lighting designer at
Lichtwerke
.
Started in 2004, with eighteen buildings, the
Symphony has become part of Hong Kong’s efforts
to present itself as one of the world’s great cities.
And, pollution aside (which is fantastic for public
lighting displays), Hong Kong can definitely be said
to be amongst that milieu.
These media façades have become a major part
of efforts by cities around the world to attract notice,
brand themselves, and capture the idea of ‘urban
chic’. Unsurprisingly, some of the world’s fastest
growing, but impoverished, cities are taking the lead.
rchestral lighting
for fun and profit
by Gavin Chait