The Lighting Control Innovation Award was created in 2011 as part of the Illuminating Engineering Society’s Illumination Awards program, which recognizes professionalism, ingenuity and originality in lighting design. LCA is proud to sponsor the Lighting Control Innovation Award, which recognizes projects that exemplify the effective use of lighting controls in nonresidential applications.
This month, we explore a dynamic, complex, and award-winning lighting controls installation at Jewel Changi Airport in Singapore. Lighting control design by Lighting Planners Associates. Photography by Benoy, Changi Airport Group, and Lighting Planners Associates. Lighting and controls by Lutron Electronics (Quantum System).
Jewel Changi Airport is a mixed-use development featuring gardens, attractions, retail offerings, a hotel, and airport facilities in Singapore. With the concept of creating a 24-hour amphitheater, it shows different expressions of light that gradually changes according to the time of the day.
The project began with clear aspirations of becoming a landmark. At the center of a dome-shaped building, there is the world’s biggest indoor waterfall surrounded by lush greeneries. After dark, the waterfall turns as a projection screen for the light show. A strategic and a large-scale lighting control system is used to address the following challenges:
1. To have mutually agreeable light levels for retail spaces to satisfy multiple clients with different requirements.
2. To dim all the architectural lights smoothly in a synchronized manner without any time lag for the lighting show at the central garden area.
3. To lower down the brightness level at each opening to the retail area during the light show without spoiling the retail experience.
4. To comply with the green building rating system without compromising the lighting design.
For retail spaces, tunable-white lighting fixtures are set to different lighting color temperatures depending on the proximity to daylight. DALI was chosen as zonings of areas were complicated, and full flexibility was required in terms of dimming levels. For the garden area, in addition to the preset timing control, manual overwriting control was added to trigger the show on demand. Instead of IBS controlling architectural light fixtures through the master lighting control system, it can now control the dimmer racks directly while signalling other components such as water pumps, projectors, speakers, and show lighting. Daylight sensors that activate the light only during the overcast day and dimming control contributed to the achievement of Green Mark Gold Plus, a local certification for environmentally sustainable buildings.
Control diagram showing scene settings for the project.
Sectional view showing lighting elements.
Central garden – forest valley receiving sunlight through the glass dome.
Forest valley during the blue moment.
Forest valley during the lightshow.
Forest valley during the light show.
Forest valley during before the dawn.
Retail area during the day-time (7am to 7pm).
Retail area during the night-time (7pm to 12pm).
Facade view at night, the glass panels on top and side let the light shine through during daytime.
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