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From Amber to Nilamber: Kashi Vishwanath Corridor

Prize(s) Honorable Mentions

Company Atelier Lights

Lead Designers Nirmit Jhaveri

Other Designer's names Roshni Rao

Client Venus Infra

Photo Credits Nirmit Jhaveri

Completion Date December 2022

Project Location Ahmedabad

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Entry Description

Redevelopment of Kashi Vishwanath Temple corridor connects holy river Ganga to the temple of Lord Shiva-Vishwanath. Lighting of the temple, ghat and the connecting corridor with its facades was to be done keeping in mind economy, practicality, maintenance, and a uniqueness. The project is the part of redevelopment that upgrades the ancient infrastructure in the oldest living city of India. Our concept was to have a calm, meditative atmosphere in the ghats and resplendent celebrations in the temple. At one end there is a celebration and on the other end there is a sorrow of death/ celebration of passage to a new life. Our concept celebrates this contrast by employing simple color contrast to important elements at two ends of this urban corridor. Temple premise is lit with cool color and river bank with Amber to establish association with Blue throated God and tradition of immersing oil lamps in river. Corridor is wall washed with tunable white lights that gradually connects Amber color lit riverbanks to the Blue temple structure. The journey is made interesting with the image projection of various Avatars of Lord Shiva so a long passage can be made feel short with interesting stories. Public plazas have custom made pillars of light and catenary lights to allow masses without obstructions. Overall solution caters to contrasting demands of meditative yet celebrative.

Sustainability Approach

Except the Search lights run for 20mins during the prayer time all lights are side aiming or downwards aiming. Most of the muniment lighting is done with the masked gobo projectors to avoid light tress pass in the dense high surrounding buildings. Local master artist was engaged for content creation for the gobo projection. Catenary lights are used for street and plaza lighting to allow light reach only where needed in least amount. Unique application of fiber optic lighting integrated into the stone allows long lasting waterside lighting reduces energy consumption and allows synergy between hand craft and technology which is important for the countries like India who is looking for inclusive development and advancement.