Several new hotel projects have recently opened their doors in the country. Among the is the Lánchíd 19 design hotel, facing the Danube at the foot of Buda’s Royal Palace, a re-launch of a veteran three-star hotel near the capital’s City Park.
The building and its interior are the result of an interesting collaboration between Hungarian architects, graphic artists, photographers and fashion designers.

The unique glass facade was designed by the groups Szövetség ‘39 and Nextlab. These two groups of young professionals, working on experimental developments, set up a workgroup of engineers, producers and co-artists for this project. The duty of this workgroup was to fill the architects’ idea with tangible content and, besides the unique technological solutions, to make an individual artwork. The huge fingerprint-patterns of the glass bridges in the atrium and the butterfly-pattern that can be seen on the front stone wall of the hotel are also the results of this design process.

The hotel’s moveable accordion-like glass façade is an autonomous artwork. It provides unique pictures in the night, so the hotel stands as a kind of ‘lighthouse’ on the Danube riverbank. The movement of the glass lamellas that are painted with tiny graphics generally follows the flow speed of the Danube, but based on the signals of the meteo-sensor on the top of the hotel, the movement intensifies in strong wind and smoothes when the wind stops.

via: www.lanchid19.blogspot.com

The FUSE music-television network, based in New York City, plays rock, alternative, punk, hardcore, emo and indie music. It claims a techsavvy audience ready to interact with the network via the Internet, cellphones and other wireless devices. Fuse recognized its product’s popularity, said Fuse VP of Operations Dave Alworth, but needed an equally effective “public” profile to contend as a new, New York City icon.

“Ultimately, the challenge we faced was how to use the signage to bring the Fuse television studio onto the sidewalk,” said Fitch’s studio director, George Kewin, AIA. “Vice versa, we also wanted to bring the viewing pedestrians ‘into’ the studio to have a more personal contact with the brand.” Fitch proposed four types of LED displays that formed a series of overlapping sightlines to constantly draw viewers’ attention, first to the building, then to the building’s windows. From a distance, the Fuse channel letters, in which videoscreens are embedded, are visible at least six blocks south. As pedestrians approach the building, a second sign system, a series of overhead, high-definition videoscreens, displays endlessly changing colors, video imagery and text messages across the building. For the third sign attraction, a “zipper” electronic message center snakes in and out of the serpentine contours of four, two-story-tall window bays, continues down into the sidewalk in front of the building and ends underneath the channel letters. Finally, surprised viewers watch as LED-display curtains fold and disappear behind the windows in front of them.

The curtain system comprises a mechanical framework that holds the
LED tubes in place as it folds in and out of the window bay and LED video tubes, which LED Effects Inc. (Rancho Cordova, CA) custom designed and inserted into the curtain frame. The original mechanical structure was acquired, according to MultimediaLED’s Bob Sawler, from a company in England, and then modified for this project. When closed, the curtains display a 6-ft.-tall video image. When opened, they fold back into a 12-in. storage space that allows an unobstructed view into the interior television studio.

Text by Louis M. Brill (louisbrill[at]sbcglobal.net)
Louis M. Brill is a journalist and consultant for high-tech entertainment and media communications.
Photos by MultimediaLEDs (Rancho Cordova, CA).

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Highlighting Eye Lighting
A stunning lighting scheme has recently been designed, supplied, installed and programmed by Lightscape Projects, part of the Light Projects Group, for the Richard Desmond Children Eye Centre which forms part of the Moorfields Eye Hospital. The new building, designed by architects Penoyre & Prasad, is illuminated on the South side using a linear combination of Light Projects and Tryka RGB Colour Changing LED Equipment. The lighting illuminates the façade by casting light on the underneath of the freely placed folded aluminium louvres, on a tensioned cable net suspended in front of glass curtain walling to protect the building from solar gain.

The light produces very accurate output with great sensitivity placed on the vertical cut off to prevent glare for people looking outside the window. All the light goes away from the glass to prevent direct glare of the occupants. The lighting system is controlled via a DMX 512 controller – with a Light Projects’ designed programme to create shifting light scenes using an imaginative mix of subtle colours as a celebration of light and to create a living, breathing experience. The system can be overridden with certain special themes such as for specific events and for static colour washing.
Light Projects’ Roger Beckett comments, “This project demonstrates how the improving synergy between architects and lighting designers can come together to turn building facades into magical events.”

By: lightprojects.co.uk Photos: Gideon Sykes, Pressential LLP

The Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron designed the Allianz Arena with its unique diamond-shaped illuminated outer facade, chancing between red, blue and white. More than 25,000 long-life fluorescent tubes enable the impressive illumination of the Allianz Arena.
The Allianz Arena logos are mounted on the north and south side of the arena. In a length of 39.83 meters and an absolute height of 5.18 meters, the twelve in blue and white lighted Allianz Arena letters are Europe’s biggest illuminated promotional lettering. The fascinating appearance turns the Allianz Arena into Europe’s state of the art stadium.

via: sponsoring.allianz.com, newyorker.com

This project has been shown at the Media Facades Exhbition Berlin 2008 and was published in the Exhibition Companion
(download the Catalogue Pdf – 7 Mb).