Sandvika river promenade is an ambitious project in Bærum, a municipality close to Oslo. The goal is to connect the urban centre to the river with a generous recreational promenade that allows for extensive use. The inhabitants of the country’s 4th largest municipality are invited to a half kilometre long river promenade, almost unparalleled. Every effort has been made to create a generous quality promenade to be used all year round. The 6 – 9 m wide wooden pier makes it possible for many people to gather without it being too crowded.
The light concept proposed by Zenisk in 2016 was specially designed twinkling lights along the river promenade, inspired by the old lantern on Town Hall Bridge, to create atmosphere, glow and focus down on wood and people. Originally, we proposed the lantern only in front of one building, but Bærum municipality chose to use it along the entire promenade and made it an art project.
To ensure enough light, Zenisk suggested highlighting the texture and hue of the new river promenade’s wooden deck, and on the shared street which runs on the upper level along the facades. This is done by lighting from a 12m high mast in the middle axis with shielded luminaires directed both ways. In this way, the number of masts is reduced and the solution contributed to a neat and stylish expression.
For the river promenade, the new Sandvika lantern is a jewel both during the day and in the evening. Zenisk carried out an exciting design process in close collaboration with Hadeland Glassverk as the luminaire manufacturer. Handblown glass with air bubbles captures the light from sparkling LEDs with varying colour temperature, programmed in a dynamic scenario with DMX controls. The design is timeless and constructed with solid materials. The glass case that protects the crystal is made of impact-resistant safety glass.
Designing the light source, we have been inspired by candlelight. The light should twinkle and glow with a calm motion like fire. It creates its own identity for the Sandvika river promenade and provides an attractive atmosphere in the areas where most people live.
Early phase started with outlining solutions inspired by the historic lantern through a creative sketching and modelling process. Then on to make a 1: 1 model of the lantern in wood and plexiglass to study the outer shape and size of the lantern. Based on the physical model, we started to construct the lantern in 3D program and adjusted the design based on the observations we made.
Together with Rebel light, Zenisk developed a special DMX LED luminaire from Radiant. The luminaire has 16 LED light sources in different colour temperatures distributed over 4 DMX channels. In combination with the crystal glass from Hadeland, they create a beautifully sparkling effect that fills the lantern.
