​The Jubilee installation: a unique installation

Alingsås Energi is celebrating twenty years of the Lights in Alingås festival and the Swedish town’s four-hundredth anniversary, by giving the place a light installation.

The permanent Jubilee lighting installation starts at the town square and extends along Lillån towards Nolhaga. It is the result of a collaboration between lighting designer Kai Piippo and Torbjörn Eliasson, who took the initiative to create Lights in Alingsås.
Lights in Alingsås is close to both their hearts as it has widened their contact network within the lighting industry over the years, as well as spreading “lighting culture” in Sweden through its many visitors. Both designers have visited the Alingsås lighting festival several times as workshop leaders, but this is their first common lighting design project. Helena Aman Johansson and Seren Dincel from ÅF Lighting also contributed on the project.

“The installation will be in place for many years and will retain its basic design, although it may experience greater or smaller changes,” says Torbjörn Eliasson. “Our dream is that future lighting designers will be able to use what we have made as a good base for their own creations. This is a way of thinking common to many lighting designers – sharing things with colleagues all over the world.”

The chosen location of the installation has been the inspiration for its design. It’s a limited space without distracting light from buildings, shop fronts or blinding lamp posts.

” The spirit of the place has been the key concept throughout the process,” says Kai Piippo. “It’s a magical place in the middle of the town, which nobody thinks about when it’s dark. We have studied the place’s visual qualities and listened to the running water and the leaves in the trees, then we have tried to capture its natural calm. We hope that people who stop and experience the place will be able to relax a while and reflect. We want to hide all the technical equipment in mirrored pillars, which are designed to look almost invisible.”

“This light installation is one part of Alingsås Energi’s work to create more permanent lighting installations, intended to improve the quality of lighting in Alingsås,” explains Alingsås Energi’s Managing DirectorJan Olofzon. “The goal of this installation is to create beautiful lighting in the space round the river, improve street lighting and illuminate the way from the square in the direction of Nolhaga. The pillars have been constructed to make it possible to experiment with different lighting designs at different times of the year.”

The lighting installation has three different aspects. During the day the unique, mirror-covered pillars reflect the trees, water and surroundings. When it gets dark, lighting illuminates the trees and the river. Finally, cables have been hung along the whole stretch, which are intended to act as the basis for other installations in the future. Already during this year’s Lights in Alingsås festival these cables will be used to create one of the highlights of the light trail.