Ideas for illuminating the Sheikh Zayed Bridge began over a decade ago when colored illumination was promoted by Nour Assafiri, CEO of Martin Middle East, to the Municipality of Abu Dhabi. They liked the idea and accordingly asked the bridge's prestigious architect Zaha Hadid to consider the concept.
Named after the country's former president, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the bridge features a captivating illumination of dynamic lighting from 204 Martin Exterior 600 and 130 Martin Exterior 200 colour changing luminaires, as well as 956 Martin Cyclo 01 linear fluorescent luminaires.
A redundant lighting control system is centered around a Martin Maxxyz Compact lighting console, which was used for lighting programming, with a Martin M-PC used for control of daily lighting scenes.
Rogier van der Heide, chief designer and vice president at Philips Lighting, and previously director at Hollands Licht and Arup Lighting, created the original lighting design concept for the bridge. He commented, "The lighting design of this project was incredibly complex. I had to integrate color changing technology, dust- and waterproof equipment, a very advanced control network and special optics into a single holistic solution to realize the creative design."
Martin Professional Middle East was instrumental in executing the design and realising the final effect, says van der Heide. The lighting design was further detailed with an international design team at Arup. The final project phases, including programming of 13 artistic scenarios, were led by Simone Collon, associate and lighting designer at Arup.
"Without the tremendous contribution of Martin Pro Middle East and High Point Rendel, this project could not have been done," van der Heide stated. "The successful finalization of this project demonstrates how important it is to collaborate, and how architectural lighting has evolved into a holistic discipline that brings together designers, manufacturers and engineers in an integrated process."
(Jim Evans)
