napp studio proposes a cathedral of light in central london for future festivities

looking way way way ahead to the festive period, hong-kong based architecture and product design group napp studio have come up with an architectural concept made entirely out of lights. the design proposes to recreate a huge cathedral covering some of the most populous areas of london.

in collaboration with straw design and urban paradox, napp studio looks to london’s iconic st. paul’s cathedral for architectural inspiration, transforming classical compositions into meshes of illumination. on one hand the arches contrast the heftiness of the street facades, and on the other find harmony in a similar architectural language. a catenary lighting system suspended at regular intervals along the streets covers the area, as if everyone is under the same roof. together these segments form the naves of the cathedral and at key junctions, featured domes and vaults are created using suspended lighting.

titled ‘lucida basilica’, the concept is formed using radial segments of structural cable tied to the roofs of buildings, formed by suspended wireframe that would remain iconic in daytime. wire-mesh-nature of the proposal inherently minimises wind load, rain load or snow load, while its vault-nature deals with headroom for traffic and blends into street facades, with potential opportunity for the lighting to come down to the ground and interact with visitors in pedestrianised areas. the cathedral of light would cover bond street, regent street and oxford street, some of the most popular areas during the festive season.