Glasgow Lighting Initiatives

Long term lighting projects, Glasgow

2002 - 2003

Over a period of two years NVA successfully highlight four key buildings, or details of buildings within the City of Glasgow. These were artists-led projects that brought a unique element of creativity and also fitted into Glasgow City Council’s Lighting Strategy for the city. The buildings involved were:

Glasgow Tidal Weir
Glasgow College of Building and Printing
Merchant House
The Tramway Chimney in the Hidden Gardens

For the Merchants House of Glasgow NVA concentrated on highlighting the wonderful globe and ship detail on the top of their building.

The Glasgow Tidal Weir was a really challenging structure to light due to the difficulty of highlighting an almost transparent structure but has now become one of the city’s most talked about lighting design.

In collaboration with Speirs & Major Associates, NVA created a design around the Tramway Chimney, situated in the heart of the Hidden Gardens site. The design was based upon the cellular stem of a plant, and by using Derkson projectors created a hypnotic metamorphosing moving image that looked almost animalistic from a distance. This was launched in December 2003 in conjunction with the Eid Festival of Lights.

The Glasgow College of Building and Printing was a formidable site to light as the effects of harsh weather and time have had a fairly severe impact on the building. However it was a worthwhile challenge as the building is located in one of the most prominent positions in Glasgow and can be seen from most points of the city. Built on a hill, the college had very unusual roof elements with a Corbusier feel that was lost to the public on the street. NVA’s design transformed this site into a futuristic contemporary building by adding colour, life and energy to the site. It has now become a beacon over the city and a Glasgow landmark.