State Street Feature Wall

Split personality

The "State Street Feature Wall" in New York/US.

Artificial lighting in interior spaces, or light art installations, can be designed in a variety of ways and use this to their advantage. The "State Street Feature Wall" in the lobby of an office building in New York City – created by the designers from SoftLab in collaboration with Focus Lighting – changes in appearance according to the available incident daylight. As a result, the work develops what might be referred to as a split personality, one that is in evidence in the daytime, and another that reveals itself after dark. Both light scenarios use RGBW LEDs to ensure an even spread of light throughout the wall structure and to subtly bring out the colour of the dichroic film applied to the plexiglass panels. Over the course of the day only white LED light is applied. The unique feature wall and its luminous qualities follow the circadian pattern and respond to the amount of incident daylight and thus the level of brightness in the lobby. The crystalline-like structure is very softly illuminated, the wall becomes less transparent and the colours reflected and refracted by the dichroic film are radiated into the space. As the level of brightness decreases towards the end of the day, the luminous intensity of the RGBW LEDs is increased. The structure and dynamic quality of the wall are accentuated, and it appears to be far more transparent than by day. An interior artwork that harmoniously shapes and changes the existing space and at the same time looks as if it has always been an integral part of the architecture. An artificially illuminated element in an indoor space that is nevertheless oriented towards available incident daylight.

Design and lighting design: SoftLab in cooperation with Focus Lighting