Located in a recreational area of Tampere, Finland, the Naistenlahti Power Plant is using its lakeside position, and a lighting design featuring GE ConstantColor CMH ceramic metal halide lamps, to showcase a dramatic new look. The lighting design transforms this industrial structure into an attractive feature of the city and its waterfront nightscape.
The industrial architecture features simple geometric forms and lines without any decorative details. The lighting brings out the graphical form of the building, highlighting the key elements with colour. A programmable lighting system varies the appearance of the building to create a positive and dynamic message for the site, the building’s architecture, the owner, and for the millions of people who pass the site each year during the long northern nights.
Lighting designers Roope Siiroinen, Arto Heiskanen and Heini Ylijoki of VALOA design Ltd chose GE Consumer & Industrial to supply the plant with lamps. The lighting for the pilaster, diagonal pipeline, and the surrounding area is provided by GE ConstantColor CMH 35-watt through 250-watt ceramic metal halide lamps. The programmable colourwash on the façade is provided by an 1800-watt metal halide theatrical lighting system. The RGB LED screen on the corner of the façade provides additional interest.
“GE’s exclusive ConstantColor CMH technology was a great choice for the Naistenlahti Power Plant,” explains Mary Beth Gotti, Manager of the GE Lighting & Electrical Institute. “These lamps provide excellent lamp-to-lamp colour uniformity, and the programmable lighting system allows the look of the plant to continually transform.”
Because of the intelligent technical control system, the total energy consumption of the façade and new area lighting is lower than that of the previous area lighting alone. The system adjusts the lighting according to factors such as time, traffic and amount of daylight.
This dynamic lighting solution is well suited to the building’s recreational environment. It is an example of how lighting alone can create a unique facelift for unadorned structures.