The Bridge of Peace spanning the river Mtkvari is the third project in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi using Pharos controllers with the collaboration team of Italian architect Michele de Lucchi, French lighting designer Philippe Martinaud and Dutch lighting engineer Marco de Boer. A graceful and elegant sculpture evocative of a marine animal, its dynamic, mesmerising illumination is created using only white light.
Bridge of Peace, Tbilisi, Georgia. Photo © Ivane Goliadze
The 1200 fixtures in the glass canopy provide a substantial canvas for geometric and organic lighting patterns suggesting animation and breathing. Martinaud explains, “Through the lighting design, I could create a second skin to stress the architectural structure and give it a light which is alive and in perpetual movement.” The canopy effects are generated by a networked Pharos LPC 1 and LPC 2.
An additional four LPC 2s and three LPC 1s control the 4100 LEDs incorporated into the glass parapets of the 150m interactive walkway. Integrated along the walkway are 256 sensors connected to the digital inputs on 32 Pharos RIO 80 remote devices networked via 16 Pharos PoE switches to the LPCs. As pedestrians pass the sensors, sections of lights follow their progress across the bridge. The LPCs’ support for scripting greatly simplified the task of handling the trigger inputs from the many sensors and allowed the team to make rapid adjustments during commissioning. A Pharos button panel (BPS) is also installed for local triggering of override sequences.
From sunset to the early hours, the controllers run a change of program every fifteen minutes, culminating in the hourly sequence that expresses a universal message: the chemical elements that comprise the human body. This was achieved by translating their periodic table chemical symbols into Morse code and programming the dash-dot pattern as a text effect in Pharos Designer. The resulting light pattern travels across the parapet. Martinaud adds that, “This message celebrates life and peace between people.”
