What the true lighting architecture is? Many people think, that is when
electric light just replaces the sunshine in the dark and illuminates
the building from outside, making the hearts rejoice. But the building
might acquire new, unexpected and even miraculous appearance, be it
illuminated inside, like self-shining object. That is the source of all
the charm of jewelry, and the
specific core of fairy-tale situations, as the famous writer Aldous Huxley noted.
The modern architecture gives us an opportunity to carry out actual test.
It's extremely difficult to illuminate the huge building from outside. Why not to
use it's own inner lights, to make them serve the purposes of lighting
architecture? During the celebrations of 50-th Victory Day we tried to "draw"
the figures "50" by means of shining windows on the facade of Kazan
University tall building. If all windows were supplied with automatic shatters
(instead of black paper that we used), the facade would serve as a giant
information board for any memorable event.
Less ambitious, decorative tasks are much easier to realize. For instance, the
"light wave" might run the facade up- and downwards. The wave velocity
might depend on the temperature in the street, or the current rate of
exchange (the latter can be applied in the lighting of the bank buildings).
And one more, rather fanny variant - when the sequence of windows in "on"
and "off" states is randomized. In this case the whole building would begin to
sparkle in countless combinations of lights. The title of a project is "Sparkling
Tower". Let anybody try!