Innovative lighting installation for urban regeneration project

Noma Earth Tubes – Manchester, United Kingdom

NOMA Earth Tubes are part of NOMA, an urban regeneration project in North Manchester. Thanks to an innovative lighting installation from Traxon, the climate towers are not only functional but also make the landscape more attractive.

Details:

Category: Dynamic lighting
Location: Manchester, United Kingdom
Technology/Services: Luminaires
Year: 2015




Each of the three approximately 5.60 meter high concrete towers have a slightly different shape, and have been encased with a media screen of Traxon String RGBs, each of which has 5,760 individually controllable light points. For the top of the towers a disc of Traxon Media Tube® RGB was created to make a round media screen which would fit across the grill without interfering with the air flow of the structure. 10,800 individually addressable light points were installed in total across the three “lids”. To top things off, each tower was also equipped with a crown light consisting of OSRAM LINEARlight FLEX IP LED modules. The whole lighting installation is managed using e:cue servers which provide the facilities needed to control the media screens and the interactive part of the project.

The flexibility of the OSRAM solution not only enabled all the elements of the lighting system to be perfectly adapted but also four different lighting modes to be implemented – organic video, motion tracking, gesture control and Twitter mode. Sensors mean that the lights follow people around the tubes and can depict shadows on the structures. Individuals can also activate basic color changes via tweets which happen in the blink of an eye.

Project Partner

Partner:Studiotech
Client:Noma
Lighting Designer:Cundall Light4
Architect:StudioTech