Silo 468 Gets a New Lease of Life with LED

Project of the Month : 

SILO 468, HELSINKI, FINLAND | LIGHTING BY LIGHTING DESIGN COLLECTIVE
PHOTOGRAPHY (C) HANNU ISO-OJA, TUOMAS UUSHEIMO, TAPIO ROSENIUS

In the spotlight this month is Tapio Rosenius, IALD, of Lighting Design Collective, winner of an Award of Excellence in the 30th Annual IALD International Lighting Design Awards.

With light as the sole transformative element, Silo 468 reinvents a functionally abandoned oil silo sitting near the sea, facing central Helsinki, into light art and a public space. Well-known to the inhabitants of Helsinki, the area’s prevailing winds served as the muse for the design team from Lighting Design Collective. Using natural light, wind and the movement of light on water as visual  inspiration, and perforating the walls of the silo with 2012 holes in honor of the World Design Capital year, this project embodies the aesthetic and technical excellence indicative of IALD International Lighting Design Award-honored projects.

“The creativity in using both electric lighting and daylight to create a living, breathing space shows how light can transform an abandoned industrial element into a well-used public attraction,” one IALD awards judge commented of the project.

Silo 468’s 2012 circular cut-outs are fitted with 1,280 2700K LED domes. The lighting design team developed bespoke software using swarm intelligence and nature simulating algorithms that refresh responding to parameters, such as wind speed, direction, temperature, clear night and snow. The patterns are fluid, natural in feel and never repeat. Patterns start off moving slowly, but speed up in relation to the wind speed, creating a constantly changing mural of light.

CLICK HERE for full project credits and more information about the Silo 468 project.

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21 Oct