architects + designers unveil holiday installations around the world

with the festive season upon us, designboom looks at a variety of luminous artworks, installations and trees conceived by architecture and design teams around the world. these temporary pieces celebrate all holidays and seasonal festivities through the experimentation of light, material and scale.

the lighting installation evokes an intense magical snow scene
image courtesy of the berkeley hotel, london (also main image)

rogers stirk harbour + partners has designed ‘snowfall’, a specially commissioned lighting installation evoking an intense magical snow scene. the dazzling piece welcomes guests to the landmark hotel ,’the berkeley’, in london. inspired by the intensity of the blizzard, the design team used 137,000 glistening lights and carbon fibre beams to complete the work.

the design team used 137,000 glistening lights and carbon fibre beams to complete the work
image courtesy of the berkeley hotel, london

designer es devlin realized an audio-visual installation that emanates carlos from a singing tree. the high-tech installation is brought to life via machine learning and thousands of words collected from the public.presented at the V&A museum in london, visitors are invited to contribute a word to the singing tree, which are then combined and processed by a text and sound algorithms trained on 25 million words of 19th century poetry.

this high-tech tree is brought to life via machine learning and thousands of words

visitors are invited to contribute a word to the singing tree

at omotesando hills — a shopping complex in central tokyo — emmanuelle moureaux brings a fusion of art and illumination into the mall for the holiday season. ‘christmas forest in 100 colors’ is drawn from the scenery of layers of trees lining up along the main boulevard in omotesando. 1500 miniature trees in 100 different colors are illuminated like lanterns, making the hues emit a soft and gentle light.

image by daisuke shima

snøhetta designed a festive tree at maihaugen, the open-air museum in lillehammer, norway. every year, the museum invites artists to design the holiday tree. experimenting with reuse and recycling, the designers used existing materials from their office and workshop spaces to create more than 600 transparent glass tubes filled with materials such as crushed glass, paper clips, model pieces, cables, fabric, and old drawings. each tube tells a short story of its own, and together they create a vertical contrast to the horizontal branches of the tree.

the vertical ornaments contrast with the horizontal composition of the tree
image by camilla damgård

600 transparent tubes are filled with recycled materials from the design studio
image by camilla damgård

in lower manhattan, LAB at rockwell group designed ‘luminaries’ a temporary light installation at brookfield palace, new york, in the iconic winter garden. visitors are immersed in a canopy of glowing lanterns suspended from the glass-vaulted atrium, each changing color and intensity.

LAB at rockwell group designed ‘luminaries’ at the brookfield palace in new york
image by darial sneed, courtesy of arts brookfield

visitors are immersed in a canopy of glowing lanterns suspended from the glass-vaulted atrium
image by darial sneed, courtesy of arts brookfield

architecture and design group hello wood built a series of festive trees in major cities around europe. in vienna and london, the trees were constructed from 400 sledges and placed in historical centers. charity trees made of firewood were also placed in budapest and kecskemet. the logs used as building blocks will later be distributed amongst families in need of heating this winter season.

charity trees made of firewood were built in budapest and kecskemet
image by mate lakos

the logs used for the trees will be distributed amongst 60 families in need of heating this winter season
image by mate lakos

UK designer lee broom and design brand nude unveiled ‘the tree of glass’ within the restaurant aqua shard, located on the skyscraper’s 31st floor in london. the collaboration shapes a unique interpretation of the traditional christmas tree, turning the festive feature into an illuminated sculpture of 245 hand-blown glass LED pendant lights. floating in a formation that stands just under 10 meters tall, the pendant shade designs combine to create a single shard-shaped tree of light and glass. however, each piece is independently recognizable and is available for purchase, with proceeds donated to the british red cross.

the illuminated sculpture of 245 hand-blown glass LED pendant lights is located within the shard skyscraper in london
image courtesy of nude