Marketplace Light Planning of the Old Cotton Mill in Flöha, Saxony, Germany

Marketplace Light Planning of the Old Cotton Mill in Flöha, Saxony, Germany

Construction begins Autumn 2023.

Flöha’s “Old Cotton” is a historical landmark that has played a significant role in shaping the region’s identity and economy for over two centuries. Established in 1809 during Napoleon’s time, the spinning mill evolved into one of Germany’s largest and most modern factories by the late 19th century. Although production ceased in 1994, the city of Flöha recognized the cultural and economic value of the brownfield site and launched the “City Center” project in 2001 to revitalize the area.

The name “Old Cotton” represents the rich legacy of Saxony’s oldest spinning mills, which operated continuously for an extended period. The Heritage Quarter holds a special place in the city’s history, and the iconic industrial architecture of the old cotton mills continues to define Flöha’s identity and image.

Moreover, the entire area, including the adjacent park and the industrialist’s villa “Immenhof,” enjoys monument protection. To support the city’s vision of developing the heritage buildings quarter of the old cotton mills as the new city center and market square, Ruairí O’Brien.Lichtdesign has created a unique lighting concept. This concept accentuates the beauty of the site and complements Flöha’s ambitious plans to create a vibrant cultural hub in the heart of the city.

Client: Stadt Flöha
Landscape architecture: Lohaus · Carl · Köhlmos Part GmbB landscape architects · urban planners
Lighting design: Ruairí O’Brien . Lighting Design

Lighting Concept of St. Joseph Church Dresden

Lighting Concept of St. Josef Church Dresden

Reconstruction and extension of St. Joseph parish center Dresden-Pieschen

The building is the first reinforced concrete church of the Art Nouveau style in Dresden. The church was extensively rebuilt from 1970 to 1978 (architect Hubert Paul). The sculptural work was carried out by Friedrich Press.

The current reconstruction includes the ground floor and the 1st and 2nd floor in the east part of the church building.
The lighting concept links the various areas and uses of the community center, which is spread over three floors, with a common lighting language that enhances the architectural spaces and supports their flexible use by the community with energy-efficient lighting technologies.
The unique lighting fixtures and created “light” spaces provide diverse lighting scenarios that support the community in conducting secular and church activities, civic meetings and public and private events.

Planning areas:

  • Ground Floor: Meeting space, chapel / weekday chapel
  • 1st Floor: Conference rooms / seminar rooms / group rooms for music
  • 2nd Floor: Great hall under the historical vault

Client: Catholic Parish of St. Martin, Dresden

Architect: Matthias Klut Dipl.-Ing. Freier Architekt

Lighting planning/ Lighting design: Ruairí O’Brien . Lichtdesign

Completion: Spring 2023

Old Cotton Mill in Floeha

Old Cotton Mill in Floeha

Lighting Concept for the old cotton mill in Floeha

Light towers project receives recognition award for the competition “Ab in die Mitte! Die City-Offensive Sachsen” 2022

Under the motto “Creative out of the crisis – rethinking the city center”, 34 project ideas for the revitalization of city centers were submitted by 33 municipalities. The award ceremony will take place at the Denkmal trade fair in Leipzig on 25.11.2022.

Ruairí O’Brien . Lichtdesign is developing the lighting concept for the old cotton mill in the city of Floeha and is accompanying the lighting design development of the new city center within the old cotton mill and its new marketplace. The project “Light towers” of the city of Floeha, which was created according to our lighting concept, received a recognition award worth 5,000 euros. Head of the building department Andre Stefan accepted the congratulations and the certificate from State Secretary Thomas Kralinski (SMWA).

Floeha’s project idea involves the interior lighting of the three towers on the “new building” by installing resource-saving LED lights. It is intended to be the first building block for the implementation of accent lighting and to contribute to making the cubature of the largest building complex in the old cotton mill appear in an intelligently timed manner in the early evening hours in order to lend the future center more attention as well as quality of stay and experience.

Here you can see our visualization of the competition entry “Light towers” of the city of Floeha 2022.

AMD / Xilinx Dresden, Offices and Laboratories

Office and Laboratory Cpace Xilinx Dresden / Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD)

Interior design, color concept, lighting design

Fertigstellung der neuen Räumlichkeiten der Dresdner Niederlassung von AMD entsprechend dem Konzept für Licht und Farbe von Ruairí O’Brien.

Requirements:

  • Light for office spaces
  • Light for representative areas / reception area / reception desk
  • Light for conference / meeting rooms (telephone rooms, micro-meeting rooms)
  • Light for laboratory and development rooms / server rooms
  • Light for social areas (break rooms, kitchenettes, communication corners, bathrooms/toilets)
  • Traffic areas / corridors

With its simple and individually controllable lighting, our interior design and lighting concept supports the use of rooms with flexible use, e.g. in the work café, where individual work, all-hands meetings, group and team work or festive get-togethers take place.
A lighting concept for today’s modern working environments, tailored to the individual requirements of the individual areas as an ideal combination of standard-compliant lighting and discreet lighting design for a sense of well-being at the place of work. For a working environment that offers ideal working conditions and is a pleasure to spend time in.


Location: Annenhöfe Dresden, Germany (2022)
Client: TLG REAL ESTATE AG
Architect: O+M Architekten GmbH BDA
Services: Interior design / color concept / lighting design
Client: Xilinx Dresden GmbH / Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD)
Photos: Baldauf&Baldauf

Lighting concept for the Mittelbau Dora concentration camp memorial site

Lighting concept for the Mittelbau Dora concentration camp memorial site

Part of the redesign concept for the didactic development of the tunnel complex

Competition entry, 3rd place

The lighting concept is an essential part of the competition entry “Points and Lines”, which consists of two elements: Information points and light lines for the paths between them.

The concept includes the didactic idea that the light lines guide the visitors and the information pillars (points) mark the individual stations.
The info pillars are light sculptures that represent gathering points where history is explained to visitors during guided tours.
The guiding light lines lead to these information points, provide the power supply and at the same time ensure optimal illumination of the space.

Both the design of the information modules and the lighting stand out clearly from the historical surroundings and thus convey a distance to the original structural environment. The historical rooms are viewed in the light of today, while the self-sufficient exhibition elements show the entire surrounding space.

We are pleased that our light-oriented exhibition concept was able to achieve an excellent third place in this competition with numerous renowned participants.

You can find the overall concept in detail here.

Meeting Rooms / Conference and Communication Areas AMD Dresden

AMD / Xilinx, Annenhoefe Dresden

Meeting Rooms / Conference and Communication Areas

Completion of the new premises of the Dresden branch of AMD according to the concept for light and color by Ruairí O’Brien.
Location: Annenhöfe Dresden, Germany (2022)
Client: TLG REAL ESTATE AG
Architect: O+M Architekten GmbH BDA
Services: Interior design / color concept / lighting design
Client: Xilinx Dresden GmbH / Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD)
Photos: Baldauf&Baldauf

On the way in light 2022, Potsdam

On the way in light 2022, Potsdam

“Soundless Music”

On the road in the light. But safely!

On the third weekend in January, our LICHT composition “Soundless Music” was performed in Potsdam’s city centre. With the concept developed especially for “Unterwegs im Licht 2022”, Potsdam’s city centre was staged in a composition of colours during the evening hours, from Friday (21 January) to Monday (24 January), thus expressing the universal process of THERMODYNAMICS.

Beginning with blue tones on Friday, ending with red tones on Monday, the LIGHT composition worked with 18 buildings, each in turn with 24 light scenarios that harmonise and interact with each other to create an immersive walk through the “Gesamtkunstwerk” of public space, architecture, light and time.

Kicking off on Friday, the beauty of the cold winter months was celebrated in calm BLUE and INDIGO combinations, which gave way to the optimistic GREEN of spring on Saturday and were replaced by the WARM summer joy of YELLOW and ORANGE tones on Sunday. The dynamic process concluded on Monday with a more reflective backdrop of DARK RED, accompanied for the FINALE with lighting moods from all the MAIN COLOURS of the colour spectrum.

“We have not forgotten you”.

This LICHTKUNST action was linked to the intention of the state capital Potsdam to convey to its citizens and its cultural institutions that it has not forgotten the importance of CULTURE in the city and the relevance of all those active in the cultural scene, even in these difficult times. For all, this weekend celebrated the beauty of life and art in and with (light) culture.

The illumination was realised by the following partners: Landeshauptstadt Potsdam (organiser), P3 Projekt GmbH (organisation), Ruairí O’Brien . Lichtdesign (lighting concept), TLT Event AG (technical implementation)

Links:

www.ruairiobrien-lichtkunst.de

On the road in the light. But safely! – Potsdam Marketing und Service GmbH (potsdamtourismus.de)

https://www.berlin.de/tourismus/brandenburg/veranstaltungen/4722010-3479097-unterwegs-im-licht-in-potsdam.html

Photos 1,7: Alexander Rentsch

Photos 2-6,8: Peter Fischer

On the way in light 2020, Potsdam

On the way in light 2020, Potsdam

Temporary event lighting Potsdamer Mitte

The images show excerpts from Ruairí O’Brien’s lighting composition for Potsdam Unterwegs im Licht 2020, including the Brandenburg State Parliament, the Nikolaikirche and the Filmmuseum Potsdam. “With an authentic concept, high-quality technology and a selective choice, you can achieve more in lighting design. To create poetic and exciting lighting atmospheres, you have to understand how time, space, materials, darkness and light can be brought together and how they can be set against each other.” Ruairí O’Brien

Light concept Swanseaplatz Mannheim

Light concept Swanseaplatz Mannheim

Entry in the competition for the redesign of Swansea Square

Together with Huttereimann Landscape Architecture

Lighting scenes

  1. Early night hours (lighting plan at the top): full lighting level according to the programmed power as per the lighting concept.
  2. Late night hours (centre images): reduced, energy-saving lighting

By means of phase-controlled half-night switching (HNS), the luminaires are switched to reduced power operation (reduced luminous flux) during the night. This ensures a minimum lighting level to guarantee safety and orientation on the square. In areas without use or individual luminaires that primarily serve spatial modelling and atmosphere (e.g. at the “Schaukelwäldchen”), the lighting can be switched off completely in consultation with the City of Mannheim. Even in the late half of the night, the path area remains illuminated in such a way that the standard-compliant illuminance is maintained. Optionally, intelligent dynamic lighting control with radio-networked luminaires can be used to make the lighting dependent on use. To prevent vandalism and increase cleanliness and safety, the lighting in the kindergarten area is controlled by presence detectors.

Early night atmosphere

The downward light prevents a boring and monotonous lighting atmosphere and creates a lively carpet of light with nuances of light and dark. The luminaires can also set accents, e.g. grazing light on tree trunks without scattered light into the night sky. The tree-like shape of the selected luminaires matches the park landscape.

Late night atmosphere

According to the use, rear park areas are darkened, the path remains illuminated. The square is in darkness and only the main path is fully illuminated, for safety when crossing and for orientation.

Environment

Reduced illuminance levels and directed light from above at small half-scatter angles maximally reduce unwanted stray light and prevent unnecessary light pollution. The warm light colour of the luminaires in the square creates a stimulating and calm atmosphere. In addition, this lighting offers the highest possible level of insect and bird protection due to its low blue component. For optimal colour recognition and improved facial recognition, to increase safety and the subjective feeling of security, the area of the passageway and the café is illuminated with 3,000 K.

Obermarkt Freiberg

Obermarkt Freiberg

Lighting concept for the market square

The new market square lighting in Freiberg broke new ground in lighting design in urban development. The unique light poles, specially designed for the historic Obermarkt Freiberg, combine the technically functional object with the artistic light sculpture in their own duality.

Innovative technology meets contemporary architecture, art meets science. In addition to illuminating the market square in the evening, the light poles (reflector system) can also be individually controlled or dimmed depending on the need for use in the public space. During the day, dichroic glasses in the upper mast act in a solar-geometric play with the sun, immersing the market square in a subtle, lively play of colour. This work of light and architecture, tailor-made for the historic Obermarkt, is complemented by the illumination of the historic Otto fountain, the listed façade of the town hall, as well as the water features and the unique granite seating furniture, also designed for the Obermarkt, which invite visitors to linger on the prestigious market square.

The lighting of Freiberg’s Upper Market was nominated for elisa – the Energy Efficiency Award of Saxony 2014. With the nomination, the lighting of Freiberg’s Upper Market was distinguished by the expert jury as a practical example and highlighted as a multipliable, proven, sustainable as well as efficient example of Saxony or for Saxony as a corresponding incentive for energy-efficient solutions.