Published on: September 26, 2009

MSW – Mader Stublic Wiermann are renowned for their lighting design that creates illusion of distorted facade. Uniqa tower can be seen in Vienna (AUT).

More info from MSW follows:

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The tower, completed in 2004 and designed by Austrian architect Heinz Neumann und Partner, is the headquarters of European insurance Uniqa.  It sits on the Danube Canal, a physical link between the city’s old section and new.

The LED installation is using the cavity of the building’s double-skin construction as a place to hide and protect a wide-meshed grid of LEDs. The resulting 81,000-square-foot media façade brings video and architectural form together in the first permanent LED installation to wrap entirely around a building’s surface.

At night the installation shows an unprecedented example of the architectural relevance of video. The visual scenario “twists and turns” consists of line and framework constellations that interpret the building by running in various directions, gauges and forms. The result is a dynamic form of architecture that comes from the existing building. A variety of force effects cause these formations to move and detach themselves completely from the building’s façade.

Perspective and graduation create new volumes of space that are arranged according to the “layering” principle. Basic form, deformation and simulation create diverse, coexistent levels of space and reality. The real building is amplified through virtual layers and is in a constant state of change. There is no absolute status.

In contrast to the illustrative story that is told by the traditional façade, the “twists and turns” manifest themselves within the urban landscape as temporary, moving, time-bound forms of architecture.