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TECHNOLOGY / ABU DHABI DIARIES
FAR OUT WORLD
Martin Valentine gives his perspective as the newly installed chief lighting designer for Abu Dhabi
My usual work routine here seems suddenly to have been obliterated these last few weeks and plenty of events in both Abu Dhabi and Dubai made for some interesting days. We had an Art Fair and Film Festival running practically side by side in Abu Dhabi at the end of October and many interesting shows and screenings popped up all over the city. On my first visit to the Emirates Palace hotel for one of these events I was having a coffee and saw Adrian Brody sitting across from me. I had to really fight the urge to go over and ask him what on earth was he thinking with Predators!? But I bit my lip and thought better of it. A week later and it was the Light Middle East Conference and Expo in Dubai; bizarre- ly happening at exactly the same time (and right next door) was Tom Cruise hanging off the top of the Burj Khalifa film- ing scenes for Mission Impos- sible 4… I know what I would rather have been visiting but alas the conference was the first time I had the opportunity to present the future Lighting Strategy for Abu Dhabi. The strategy will eventually become policy and covers all external lighting for the Emirate. It
centres around an overall reduction in cur- rent light levels, creating a balance/bright- ness hierarchy for all external applications, specifying colour temperature and render- ing templates, creating masterplanning advice and design codes. It also pushes new technologies and controls as well as setting up benchmarking standards for the extreme environmental considerations we have here. The basic outcome of the strategy implementation is around a 60% reduction in carbon emissions compared with current practices and it seemed to be well received - certainly I had plenty of people wanting to speak to me afterwards. However, perhaps due to the fact my question and answer session was cut short prematurely due to power failure in the room, or maybe that is just the way it is, I didn’t expect to be completely inundated as it actually turned out. I suddenly found myself plunged into a media frenzy and what was a 20-minute presentation turned into three hours of radio, television and newspaper interviews, leaving me exhausted and a little stunned. When I eventually escaped I had the strange out-of-body experience of hearing myself interviewed on the radio as I was driving
home… a very, very strange feeling. The best thing was I somehow managed to get onto an entertainment radio show the next day to talk about my favourite subject again: lighting and film. I didn’t mention Predators in the list of recent ‘must-sees’. I felt I made my point belatedly if Mr. Brody, by some very remote chance, was listen- ing…
The conference gave me a chance to hook up with many of my friends from the indus- try I hadn’t seen since my move over here and there were some great presentations over the three days. Martin Lupton and Sharon Stammers of Light Collective were over and I was their lift and chaperone for a day in Abu Dhabi… a day I think we all won’t forget in a hurry…! (Martin, you left your Ray-Bans case in the back of my car if you
the distance and to aircraft approaching Abu Dhabi airport. I know the guys at CD+M have been working many late nights in the run-up to the opening, programming the façade and other elements.
The sweeping curves of the façade are uplit from the ground with metal halide spot- lights, and the immense red roof has been outlined in cool white LED. Together they reveal the scale and shape of the building at night when open to the public. In the centre of the building a monumental glass funnel that surrounds a catapult ride is studded with miniature LED crystals that define the edges of the glass as they taper off into the open space above. All in all, the exterior lighting appears to have been posi- tioned primarily to emphasise the form and function of the building and in this regard, it seems to have succeeded. The site on Yas is ongoing and many more buildings are planned over the coming years. Certainly it is a recommended destination for anyone planning on coming over. As I write this it is Eid Holiday here, which is the biggest public holiday in the calendar and a chance for me to relax at home for almost a week. I have just
wondered where it was… I know how impor- tant your shades are to you both now look- ing at your LinkedIn photos.) The event was capped by a great Philips do on the Tuesday night at the Atlantis Hotel and to add to the strange experiences, I finished the evening sitting in a Bedouin tent on the beach chat- ting with Jonathan Speirs, Paul Gregory, Martin and Sharon as we listened to Rogier Van de Heide take the microphone. Two other big events hit Abu Dhabi last week - the F1 Grand Prix and the open- ing of the adjacent Ferrari World Theme Park. The Ferrari World Building that the developer, ALDAR has just completed, is now one of the largest structures in the world and I pass it every day on the way to work. It is the world’s largest indoor theme park with the world’s fastest roller coaster at 240kmph! Conceptualised by UK-based Benoy Architects, the checkered glass fa- çades are adorned with lines of LED fittings integrated into the structure. The light- ing designers are US-based CD+M Lighting Design Group. Patterns of light race around the building at speeds akin to Formula One race cars in an animated light show that is visible both from the city of Abu Dhabi in
come back from a trip to Venice for the inaugural ‘Colour & Light in Architecture’ conference. This is something I think many of you would appreciate attending in its fu- ture incarnations as it highlighted the latest academic research papers into lighting and many of the ongoing studies on colour and light from the human and historical angle. It was also my first visit to Venice and we experienced the aqua alto - the flooding of Venice that is becoming all to frequent nowadays. If ever there is place to truly un- derstand the effects of global warming and rising sea levels, this is it. To think we may, in only a hundred years, lose this beautiful city to the Adriatic should give focus to all our efforts in our small craft to do the best we can in producing the most efficient and sustainable designs possible in the areas we work.
In the next months I will be working more closely on the new Sheikh Zayed Bridge by Zaha Hadid and I hope to show more on this wonderful structure in coming editions. Martin Valentine MSLL PLDA
Lighting Expert, Executive Director office Municipality of Abu Dhabi City
martin.valentine@
adm.abudhabi.ae
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