At this year’s Amsterdam Light Festival, event goers certainly won’t have a hard time finding the exhibition’s ticketing booth — after all, it’s been constructed as a giant LED-lit biometric pavilion. Designed and manufactured by the Holland-based UNStudio and textile firm MDT-tex, the structure — dubbed Eye_Beacon Pavilion — draws its inspiration from bioluminescent sea organisms. In other words, it’s like nothing festival fans have ever witnessed before; it’s truly stunning.
“Similar to deep sea creatures that use bioluminescence to signal, attract, and inform, the Eye_Beacon uses choreographed light sequences to alert visitors to its dual function as both a sculpture and an information point for the festival,” said UNStudio’s Ben van Berkel to Arch Daily. “Along with the effect of the pavilion partially overhanging the Amstel River, the twist that connects the two halves of the structure emphasizes the crossing point between the land and water routes of the festival.”
Comprised of two separate cube-like structures which are fused together by a series of flexible surfaces, the pavilion boasts a whopping 250 different panels. Built by MDT-tex using tensile modules, each panel not only provides a perfect template for projecting LED lights but also for showing silhouetted flashes of the interior. Furthermore, the LED lighting consistently changes its colors which dramatically alters the structure’s appearance from moment to moment. While it is a sight to behold for anyone visiting the festival, it’s from a distance that the pavilion really shines — no pun intended.
UNStudio and MDT-tex situated their innovative pavilion on the Amstel River’s western bank, right near the city’s Blauwbrug bridge. As mentioned above, the Eye_Beacon serves as the festival’s ticket booth but also functions as an information hub that connects the event’s “Water Colors” canal route with its “Illuminade” installation. Having officially debuted on December 1, the Amsterdam Light Festival will continue its stay along the river until January 22.
