Prize(s) Honorable Mentions
Company Expolight
Lead Designers Mykola Kabluka
Architecture Company Hiroki Matsuura, MADMA urbanism+landscape
Client UNIT.City, Vasyl Khmelnytsky
Photo Credits Expolight
Completion Date 16/06/2021
Project Location Kyiv, Ukraine
Entry DescriptionWe’ve designed and implemented a public space with full-fledged biodynamic light in Unit City in Kyiv. The area is surrounded by office and residential campuses. During the day, it serves for business meetings and coffee breaks, while in the evening, it’s a place for dating and recreation.
Together with an urban architect Hiroki Matsuura, we’ve amplified the sense of unity with nature using light and shadows. Special fixtures with custom filters were developed to create shadow patterns from branches. We changed the balance of paving and trees, made shallow light, only slightly illuminating the greenery and shadows from it, and created the feeling of a shady park throughout the entire area, although the trees are found only along the perimeter.
The lighting changes depending on the time of day: at the end of the working day, the light is more neutral, supporting working activity. Then it warms up and adjusts to rest, and in the late evening, it becomes more contrasting and intimate, revealing shadows.
An algorithm in plant boxes monitors the rhythms of seasonal changes in the biological cycles of plants and changes their illumination. For that, we developed custom software.
