IALD Awards 2010, International Association of Lighting Designers, Results, Projects

Lighting Awards Winners

IALD Radiance Award: Winner from 2010, London, England, UK

19 May 2010

Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan, Al Nahyan Mosque, Abu Dhabi, UAE:

image from SAM

IALD Radiance Award 2010 Winner: Speirs and Major Associates

For the third year running, UK designers Speirs and Major Associates have been awarded the profession’s top global award for lighting design.

The IALD Radiance award was given to the designers in recognition of their exterior lighting of the Grand Mosque of Abu Dhabi, UAE.

For Speirs and Major it marks the latest in a succession of wins.

In 2008 Speirs and Major first won the Radiance prize for their work on the Richard Rogers-designed Barajas International airport. In 2009, SaMA returned to win the prize again, this time in recognition of their work on the Foster and Partners-designed 3 More London.

It proved to be a busy night for the UK design firm, who besides winning the main Radiance Award, also picked up two further awards at the presentation held 13 May in Las Vegas, USA.

An Award of Excellence was given for the lighting of the Infinity Bridge in Stockton-on-Tees as well as for the exterior illumination of the Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan, Al Nahyan Mosque, Abu Dhabi, UAE. An Award of Merit was given for the Sands Bethworks Resort, Bethlehem, USA.

IALD Radiance Award 2010 Winners – Jonathan Speirs, Mark Major and Keith Bradshaw:

Directors Jonathan Speirs and Keith Bradshaw said: “We are very humbled to receive this award, and grateful to all our collaborators, especially our client who provided us with this extraordinary opportunity. The Grand Mosque was an enormous effort, a true labour of love, and we would like to thank the many people in our studio who have spent years working on this project with such attention to detail. Their dedication to the project is evident, and to that we’re very grateful.”

About the IALD Awards

Now in its 27^th year, the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) award programme recognizes excellence in architectural lighting design. The awards are regarded as the top accolades of the lighting design industry.

Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan, Al Nahyan Mosque, Abu Dhabi, UAE

image from SAM

Client: Department of Municipalities and Agriculture, Abu Dhabi
Interior Architect: Spatium Architects
Executive Architect: Halcrow

The mosque of Abu Dhabi is an extraordinary edifice, that in keeping with other religious buildings, attaches special symbolic importance to light. As the Islamic calendar is based on the lunar cycle, moonlight formed the fundamental theme of the lighting concept, which gradually changes over the course of the moon’s 28-day orbit. Director Jonathan Speirs explained: “In the same way as the moon has an impact on the tides, we wanted the moon to have an impact on the building. The idea was to have a building that, by full moon, is lit pristinely with white light. As the moon wanes over its 28-day cycle, the lighting grows gradually bluer to signify darkness. On the fourteenth evening the mosque is lit in deepest blue.”
Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Mosque

Infinity Bridge, Stockton-on-Tees, UK

photograph : James Newton

Client: Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council
Design: Expedition Engineering
Principal contractor: Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering Ltd

Lit by Speirs and Major, the distinctive footbridge over the River Tees has become a symbol of transformation for Northeast England. The brief called for an iconic structure as part of the Stockton-on-Tees regeneration of the North Shore site.

The resulting footbridge links the north and south shores providing access to business and jobs in the area. Designed by Expedition Engineering, the slender bridge cuts a distinctive silhouette across the river. A 230m-long concrete walkway is supported by a pair of asymmetric steel arches that appear to skip across the river almost like a pebble skimming water. Speirs and Major designed the lighting in such a way that the iconic twin arches reflect in the water at night to form the mathematical symbol for infinity (∞).
Infinity Bridge

Sands Bethworks Retained Edifices, USA

photograph : Alyssha Eve Csuk

Client: Las Vegas Sands Corporation

Speirs and Major were invited to light this huge industrial complex as part of the renovated Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The ancient blast furnaces, now carefully preserved and re-lit, were an important part of America’s industrial heritage.

The lighting concept tells the story of local steel production; carefully programmed LEDs illuminate the structures, with shades of red and blue used to express hot and cool processes. The furnaces appear to glow, intensifying in colour, before cooling off and returning to darkness for periods. In this way, light plays a strategic role in linking the site to its industrial past – preserving the integrity of the Bethlehem Steel edifices and celebrating their place in the American industrial revolution.

IALD Radiance Award 2010 – Lighting Awards images / information from Speirs and Major Associates 190510

IALD Lighting Design Awards – information from Speirs and Major in 2008

photograph : James Newton