Lighting scheme for rue de Brabant, Brussels

Programme: The rue de Brabant, the third shopping street in the Brussels region, has no night-time image. The challenge is to enliven and affirm the identity of the neighbourhood through light.

About: Following our analysis, we revealed the importance of the old sodium lights in people’s minds, which were praised at the time for their qualities in terms of the bright, warm light they provided. Our scheme therefore focused on the evocation of this recollection of sodium lights by proposing coloured lighting highlighting the upper volumes of the street, in much the same way as the old, omnidirectional light sources used to do. A steady gradation from warm white to amber emphasises the urban and architectural qualities of the street by means of vertical touches of light on the buildings. In order to give a defining character to the street during night-time hours, the entrances are emphasised by lighting two sculptures, one old and one modern, permanently anchoring Brabant within its past history up to its eventual and future classification as a tourist area.