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Published on: 14th of September 2011
Current city: London

One evening in London is definitely not enough to cover all the major lighting inspirations the city has to offer. And even though I'm familiar with the city it was hard to make a choice. Nevertheless, I decided to head to the financial district, the City, as it is called here in London, to get an overlook of the different building façades that are illuminated at night.

After getting off at Liverpool Street Station I made my way towards the Gherkin (Swiss Re building) and the Lloyd's building. Just next to the Gherkin I was intrigued by a public light art piece that made me stop for a couple of minutes just observing people passing by. Check out my video of the piece.  It looked familiar and I wonder if anyone knows which artist did make this?

Moving forward, I continued to the Lloyd's building. It is an impressive building that was built between 1978 and 1986. It was very innovative at the time as an inside-out approach of architecture and so was its lighting scheme, I think. The lighting was designed by Imagination and even though it has been a scheme that has been around for a while it still feels very contemporary turning it into one of the most well-known architectural icons of London.

There were a few other buildings around and I've noticed LED technology is being used more and more on façade lighting and in interior/exterior spaces. One example of this was Spitalfields Market that had a major refurbishment and development area a few years ago. Even though it was almost empty when I passed through, I can assure you that during weekends it is buzzing with people and very lively. The colour changing lighting panels probably contribute to this and I was surprised with the message on the lit glass: more light, more power! It is actually the old Shoreditch Borough motto and I think that lighting has definitely given more 'power' to this part of town. What do you think?