Medellin, Colombia – The city of Lyon in France has been awarded the first prize for the project ‘’Le mur vegetalise de l’ Annonciade’’ in the tenth edition of the city.people.light awards this year. The annual global competition is organized by Philips and the Lighting Urban Community International Association (LUCI) to reward projects which demonstrate the contribution lighting can make to the well-being of those who live, work or visit a city or town.
At a ceremony today in Medellin, Colombia, Mr. Gilles Buna, deputy mayor of the city of Lyon, was presented with the city.people.light award by Pascoal Koutras, CEO of Philips in North Latin America, in recognition of the lighting panorama in one of Lyon’s streets, the Rue de l’Annonciade.
The panorama, titled “Le mur vegetalise de l’annonciade” combines lighting, vegetation and paintings to create an interior, living-room type atmosphere in the street that is soft and warm. It is intended to bring out the intimate nature of the area in Lyon known as La Croix Rousse, while offering local residents the opportunity to contemplate the paintings.
The idea behind this lighting panorama in Lyon was to stir the sensorial pleasures of passers-by using a painted background, vegetation and three immense images by photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand, providing a sort of “living room tapestry”. The Lighting design was realized by the Public Lighting Department of the City of Lyon.
“The project shows that lighting plays more than a functional role of illumination in cities,” said Pascoal Koutras, CEO of Philips in North Latin America. “The winning project from Lyon and all the entries for this year’s awards reinforce the role that light can play in creating vibrant, attractive cities that encourage the participation of its citizens and visitors.’’
“This is truly a different way to light a street, creating an atmosphere using the three dimensions of light, vegetation and paintings. The result is a beautiful project,” said city.people.light awards jury president Laurent Lhuillery, commenting on the winning entry.
Runners up from Stavanger (Norway) and Genk (Belgium)
Second prize – City cathedral and adjacent areas, Stavanger, Norway
The lighting design for Stavanger cathedral, Byparken and Kongsgárd illuminates the city’s cathedral and the adjacent areas of the Kongsgrd High School, Byparken (the city park) and Dornkirkeplassen. Designed by Vladan Paunovic of Ramboll Denmark, the project allowed the serenity of the place to be maintained with a well balanced lighting design.
Third prize - C-MINE in Genk, Belgium
Based on the foundations of the coal mine of Winterlag, C-MINE aims to be a meeting place for people who want to be stimulated by a wide range of diverse forms of creativity and creative innovation, both professionally or as entertainment. C-MINE is a stylish and charismatic fusion of serious industrial heritage dating back two centuries – with much of the mine’s historic machinery preserved and still intact, such as the two massive mine shaft towers. The lighting concept, designed by Luc Peumans, enabled the preservation of the story of the mine with light and created a new destination out of an old industry park.
Special Mentions for projects from Moscow and Taipei
Treasure Hill Public Art project, Taipei
Treasure Hill is the only hill in Taipei located beside the river without an artificial embankment. The art installation Treasure Hill Public Art Project, designed by I-Ju Pan from Environmental Art Design, is created to light up the beauty of the space with LED illumination, also integrating the software to control the lighting. Every Saturday night, citizens can arrange the light show by setting up the color and speed of the lighting. The show was named “Painting Saturday Night”.The jury awarded a Special Mention to the project for the way it involved Taipei’s citizens, encouraging their participation.
Novy Arbat street – Moscow
The Novy Arbat street is a street in central Moscow in the well known "Arbat" district. The appearance of the the Novy Arbat street determines the architectural scheme from the Arbat Gate Square to the Garden ring. The project consists of light installations that are mounted onto 25 buildings. These buildings are built in different architectural styles.
After the completion of the Novy Arbat – Kutuzovsky street project all the lighting devices, animated screens and illuminated landscaped areas (more than 150 sites) will be simultaneously controlled and set in accordance with one scenario.
The Moscow project was acknowledged with a Special Mention as it converts plain buildings into an attractive area to visit at night, through the simple use of light. A true metamorphosis of the area takes place when it becomes dark.
About the international city.people.light awards
This year Philips and Lighting Urban Community International Association (LUCI) host the tenth version of the city.people.light award. With entrants initially being concentrated in Europe, the awards have now become a global competition, with an increasing number of entries coming from cities in emerging economies such as China, Brazil and Russia, as well as elsewhere in Asia and Latin America.
The city.people.light awards set out to recognize the efforts cities and towns make to ‘rehumanize’ their environments, applying the medium of light for the well-being of those who live, work, visit or do business in a city or town. Awards are given to cities which best integrate an appreciation of contemporary urban living needs with the notions of ‘city’, ‘people’ and ‘light’ in a consistent lighting strategy.
The awards were created by Philips and run in conjunction with LUCI (the Lighting Urban Community International Association). LUCI is a unique international network bringing together 95 cities and lighting professionals engaged in using light as a major tool for urban development, with a concern for sustainability and environmental issues. By rewarding and putting forward cities which share this vision of urban lighting the city.people.light award participates in making cities within LUCI - and beyond – progress towards a better use of light.
+ Background Information : the jury for city.people.light Awards 2012
Shai Dewan
Philips Lighting Communications
Tel:+31 620 69 5822
E-mail: shai.dewan@signify.com
Nikita Junagade
Communication Officer
LUCI Association (Lighting Urban Community International)
Tel: + 33 4 27 11 85 37
Mobile: + 33 6 12 27 73 58
nikita.junagade@luciassociation.org
www.luciassociation.org