GD-lighting design shines a light on its method of illuminating MOCAPE shenzhen

located north of the shenzhen civic centre, MOCAPE (museum of contemporary art and planning exhibition) is the most recent major public cultural project in shenzhen, china. the building itself is an integration of the the city’s museum of contemporary arts and urban planning exhibition halls. surface materials of glass, perforated plates and stone extend and twist along the steel structure creating an intricate and dynamic architecture. however, this unique façade poses a distinct difficulty when it comes to lighting design. grand sight design international limited (GD-lighting design), the studio behind the illumination of the building, has shared its method behind making the museum shine.

in creating a fast and effective solution to lighting the irregularly shaped building, the team at GD-lighting design turned to building information modelling, or BIM. BIM is a software generally used in infrastructure design to create digital renderings of a building or construct. by creating a 1:1 digital model within the program ‘rhino’, GD-lighting design were able to map luminaire positions across the face of the building and analyse the result of different photometrics and power supplies while also measuring material reflectance. in addition, the team carried out on site tests using the various light installation angles, resolving glare issues caused by the building’s various concave and convex corners.

MOCAPE is located just north of the shenzhen civic centre, and is the city’s most recent public cultural project
all images by he shu

considering the large quantity of lights and their individual installation difficulties, it was decided to use custom made U-shaped shading grooves with exterior baffles, adjustable in height, to block glare. the interior of the grooves are then coated in matte black paint to avoid self illumination. the construction and commissioning process took advantage of BIM’s convenience, seamlessly integrating the building and its façade. use of the program allowed the team to perfectly predict luminaire installation, load, wiring and visual effects, paving the way for future lighting design processes on similarly complex irregularly-shaped buildings.

BIM is a software generally used in infrastructure design to create digital renderings of a building or construct

by creating a 1:1 digital model GD-lighting were able to map luminaire positions across the face of the building

surface materials of glass, perforated plates and stone extend and twist along the steel structure

this unique façade poses a distinct difficulty when it comes to lighting design

the team carried out on site tests using the various light installation angles

it was decided to use custom made U-shaped shading grooves with exterior baffles to block glare

the interior of the grooves are then coated in matte black paint to avoid self illumination

the construction process took advantage of BIM’s convenience, seamlessly integrating the building and its façade

use of the program allowed the team to perfectly predict luminaire installation

the method paved the way for future lighting design processes on similarly complex irregularly shaped buildings

project info:

developer: china overseas commercial properties co., ltd
architectural lighting design: coop himmelb(l)au, a.g licht, gd-lighting design
architectural lighting design team:
coop himmelb(l)au: markus prossnigg, veronika janovska, xinyu wan
a.g licht: wilfried kramb, klaus adolph
gd-lighting design: yenchin wang, hui ren, tim cheng
architectural design: coop himmelb(l)au, huasen architectural & engineering designing con-sultants ltd (hsarchitects)
facade design: sup ingenieure gmbh
photographer: he shu
location: shenzhen, china 

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: peter corboy | designboom