Stellar light installation, Alcalá St by Brut Deluxe

Calle Alcalá lights up this Christmas thanks to the Stellar installation designed by Ben Busche (Brut Deluxe), with a total of 7680 blue LED bulbs with a total length of 6km.

Stellar Alcalá lighting by Brut Deluxe. Photograph © Miguel de Guzmán / Rocío Romero Imagen Subliminal

The installation designed by Brut Deluxe consists of a dense, blue coloured system of lines that zig zag over the whole span of the street, building up a textile-like, artificial sky with some areas apparently stressed and vacant and others compressed and dense containing thousands of blinking stars.

Description of project by Brut Deluxe

The light installation, denominated stellar, is a site-specific design by commission of the City of Madrid for the emblematic 210m long street stretch between Puerta de Alcala and Plaza Cibeles, where calle Alcala is 32m broad and flanked on both sides by plane trees. The street is orientated from East to West.

The installation consists of a dense, blue coloured system of lines that zig zag over the whole span of the street, building up a textile-like, artificial sky with some areas apparently stressed and vacant and others compressed and dense containing thousands of blinking stars. Endowed with a palpable orientation, the installation aligns with both our star system, a subtle but notable presence through the slow journey of the moon along the tracks of the blue lines, and the constant traffic on the street below, a dynamic system that is enforced and emphasized in our installation. The spectator is immersed in an artificial atmosphere resembling the constant spin of the stars in zero gravity.

The installation is realised with blue coloured LED light rope with a total length of 6km on 5mm stainless steel cables and 480 vertical light motives holding a total of 7680 LED light bulbs, summing to an installed power of 16,5kW.

Read less

View more images

Metalocus recommends

Tower 15 by OODA. Photograph by Fernando Guerra

Formal unity and diversity. Tower 15 by OODA

SWITCH, New Simon Headquarters by b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia

A house for light. SWITCH, New Simon Headquarters by b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos

Domestic housing in the suburbs. House MF by Balsa Crosetto Piazzi

More information

Label

Design

Text

Ben Busche / Brut Deluxe

Label

Team

Text

Jesús Francisco Rodríguez Pedrosa, Elisa Luda

Label

Measures

Text

Calle Alcalá, 210 m length, 16.5kW

Label

Client

Text

City Council Madrid

Label

Construction enterprise

Text

Ximenez SA

Label

Status

Text

Temporary/built

Ben Busche

Brut Deluxe is an architecture and design studio headed by Ben Busche (Munich 1968). Founded in 2004, Brut Deluxe operates from two platforms in Madrid and Munich.

Brut Deluxe is focused on the investigation and creation of space and its atmospheric qualities. The projects oscillate between different scales of urban intervention: from ephemeral artistic installations to industrial design, construction design and urbanism.

According to project objectives, a multidisciplinary team involving architects, artists, designers and engineers are engaged in the design process. Brut Deluxe thrives on the international academic education and provenance of its team members.

Brut Deluxe is oriented towards the social, economic and aesthetic qualities of the projects and combines both scientific strategies and artistic approximations in the creative process.

Miguel de Guzmán

Miguel de Guzmán born in Rio de Janeiro in 1972. He is an architect (ETSAM. 1998) and also architectural photographer. He has been professor in the Graphic Ideation Department at CEU Architecture School and the Photography Department of Istituto Europeo di Design in Madrid. Since 2008 Imagen Subliminal is the broadcast platform through which he shows his work as photographer and videographer. As an Architect, he has been awarded with the Dionisio Hernadez Gil Prize for the Diocesan Priest House in Plasencia (work done together with Andres Jaque and Enrique Krahe), and was selected for the 2005 Spanish Architecture Bienal. As a Photographer he has been finalist in ABC Journal Art Awards 2000, El Mundo Photography awards 2001. He has participated in solo and group exhibitions (Circuitos de Arte Joven, Galeria Vírgenes, Photo España…). The book "Miguel de Guzmán Architectural Photography" contains a selection of photographs taken between the years 2003 and 2013, and which give example of a new way in the making of architectural photography.