Christmas lights | Lucerne
Seebrücke Christmas lights | LucerneCompetition 2009 | 2009 - 2010
In collaboration with CH Design
Design: Daniele Marques & Rainer Schlumpf
Collaborator: Rainer Schlumpf, Dipl. Arch. FH FHZ
Photographer: Heinz Unger, Zurich
The main aim of the new Christmas lighting on the Seebrücke in Lucerne is to create a festive atmosphere. Our proposal does not primarily stage a form or spatial idea. Instead, it is intended to express a mood, reflect a spiritual event and create an atmosphere. The free-standing bridge forms an ideal stage for this purpose. The curtain of lights spanned over the bridge should envelop the crossing pedestrians like fabric. The intension is to create a canopy of lights, turning the otherwise exposed route over the lake into a visually warm experience.
The lighting chain explicitly closes the eastern side, while the canopy of light opens towards the west. This evokes visual relationships with the picturesque old town and the Kapellbrücke. The jagged appearance of the lighting structure recalls the tips of a crown, thus subtly referring to the festive symbolism of Christmas, with its three kings and the Star of Bethlehem, without lapsing into kitsch.