“The building is lost at night” – how can it come alive? Arup took a ‘Branding with Light’ approach and helped the Client to define the night-time identity of the Mashreq Bank Headquarters.
One of the most pressing issues facing cities today is the widespread overuse of lighting media.
The project celebrates the identity of the brand and innovation of Mashreq Bank in a significantly sensitive way, considering its social role of celebrating the culture and the people of Dubai as well as all environmental targets. Arup’s bold and considered approach steers away from the metric of the “brightest building” and focuses on the creation of visions that are meaningful to the city after dark.
The approach we take on façade lighting projects are always to strive for ‘beauty and elegance’ as opposed to ‘visual overload’.
Arup explored the opportunity of fusing Mashreq Bank’s tradition with lighting technology innovation and agreed with our client on a brief of dressing the building with dynamic colour changing light over the sculptural fins, accentuating the distinctive corners, and as a result achieving a simple yet elegant geometrical solution.
A ‘luminous layer’ of light is designed and installed as a piece of art, which enables the façade lighting solution to double up as a marketing tool: a lighting platform to generate socio-cultural narratives and reinforce brand characteristics. It is a luminous skin bringing alive this landmark building after sunset.
The key challenges are to deliver of facade lighting design that distinct the building from its brightly lit neighbourhood with minimal environmental impact as well as safely and seamlessly integrating the lighting solution into the existing facade architecture. LED lighting is seamlessly integrated in the existing façade system to create a canvas for display of a low-resolution dynamic content.
Specific targets for average lighting power density for building envelopes are < 2.2 W/m2 for each illuminated wall or surface, and < 16.4 W/linear metre for each illuminated wall or surface length. All 550+ exterior luminaires are individually addressable to enable multiple artistic contents to be created with dynamic play of light and colour on the façade. All luminaires are shielded, such that the full light emitted by the fixture is limiting skyglow and light pollution.
Following the design stages Arup stayed involved throughout the construction in a support technical role to the Client, collaborating closely with Contractors, the Electrical Engineer, and the Façade consultant.
Arup’s key role was to assure the design intent and the technical performance for the project were upheld with the final aim to deliver a first-class future proof lighting installation.
The final installation budget was in line with the approved pre pandemic; the final installed scheme saved a third of the power consumption in comparison to the client’s original brief.
