Project Description
THE e18hteen is an eye-catching, 36-floor futuristic site-specific building in the Marina District of Lusail City, Doha. The concept of the lighting takes its inspiration from the building’s architecture which was designed and inspired by the reflection of a sail on the sea. The faceted geometry of the "sail” is echoed by the diagonal lines of light zigzagging across the main façade. Geometric diagonal elements extend from top to bottom to create clean yet expressive visual lines. These lines provided an opportunity for integrated luminaires to follow this diagonal “zipper” creating striking animations and gradients elevating the building’s skyline view.
The goal of the project was to create a low-resolution media façade to display video content, while integrating unobtrusive lighting fixtures into the existing architecture. A bespoke LED fitting was engineered and installed in the interspace behind the windows delivering the illusion of a massive, uninterrupted screen. The main challenge of this project was the varying window dimensions, the random inclined window-sills and the mandatory homogeneous indirect light effect.
Mixing flexible design solutions with smart engineering applications, the results were outstanding, and in full compliance with the strict illumination and "noise” pollution levels defined by the local district regulations.
Over 2,000 custom linear LED modules with independent pixel control were engineered and manufactured in Italy to meet the design specifications and site requirements. Another 400 linear dynamic white light profiles, supplied to enhance the sea-wave patterns of the kinetic panels on the podium, and an additional array of 600W floodlights complete the all-round choreography. The intelligent light management system provides for the comprehensive and user-friendly control of personalized video graphics and animations.