Realdania Lit in Red with SGM for Annual Culture Night in Copenhagen

	Culture Night in Copenhagen. Photo: Christian Larsen / Christianlarsen.net

For the third year in a row, lighting designer Martin Holst was commissioned to illuminate Realdania's beautiful building during Copenhagen's Culture Night 2017. Despite countless of happenings for the city's biggest annual one-day event, Realdania's 50m tall building was hard to miss with a fiery red illumination created with various SGM fixtures.

"We used SGM's LED tubes for the square in front of the building and the P-5 in the atrium behind the building to illuminate trees, bushes etc. But the fun and challenging one was definitely the huge facade on the tall building," said Holst about the light installation on and around the tall Realdania building.

The annual Culture Night in Copenhagen is a 20+ years' recurring event, drawing in participation from more than 230 museums, theaters, libraries, churches, ministries, and parks.

"On this evening, there are so many activities all around Copenhagen. Therefore, we really had to make the building stand out; creating a spectacle that drew people's attention," explained Holst, who, for the third year in a row, illuminated Realdania in their logo-color red.

Realdania is a philanthropic association established in year 2000 to provide financial support to projects initiated to improve quality of life and make a noticeable difference for the people in Denmark.

"What we really focused on, was finding the correct lenses to get an evenly lit up surface on this very tall building, with the same lumen at both the bottom and the top. As we had to place the fixtures extremely close to the building, we had to shoot vertical up the facade. SGM's Q-7s and P-5s with different lenses enabled us to create an even illumination all the way up to the top of the building," said Holst about the challenging task.

According to Holst, SGM, not only delivers beautifully designed fixtures with great output, but also reliable luminaires suitable for all environmental challenges. Therefore, with a large SGM stock, Holst used VIGSØ A/S as supplier for the assignment.

"We chose SGM products because of their reliability in terms of their IP-rating, and simply because they can do the job. In terms of the design, they are also beautiful fixtures, which allows me to place them in areas within eyesight of the audience, without disturbing what I am illuminating," said Holst and continued. "I always include SGM's Q-7, regardless of the task I have on hand, because it has a great wide beam angle and provides an even coverage. I do the lighting for many concerts, creating rock & roll lighting for artists, and the Q-7 is always there. And this installation was no exception."