Arabian lights

As architectural lighting has become the medium by which the built environment takes on a new persona and can be experienced during evening hours, Liz Moody reflects on the buildings that are instrumental in creating the scenic skylines that shape the Middle East.

Externally, a building during the day is uncompromised, the shape and the profile of the building is as the human eye views it. But come nightfall buildings are reliant on artificial light to define their external form.

While recreating daylight remains virtually impossible, architectural lighting offers numerous interpretations of how a building should be viewed come dusk.

So how are owners and designers shaping the skylines of the Gulf once the sun sets?

Times have certainly changed. Just a few years ago architectural lighting in the region was considered a means to showcase a building come nightfall through simple flood lighting which more often than not achieved a uniform light across the façade.

Though this had the desired effect of illuminating a structure, it frequently washed out the architectural design components and, aesthetically speaking, created a sense of aloofness or spatial void in the building envelope.

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