Burnham Pavilion - Lighting Program → 2009

Interactive Lighting Program developed by Studio Daniel Sauter for the Burnham Centennial Pavilion, designed by UNStudio.
Light design implemented in collaboration with Tracey Dear, Dear Productions. Assistance: Alejandro Borsani. Open to the public from June 19 - October 30, 2009

From the Burnham Plan Centennial website:

"The sculptural UNStudio pavilion is highly accessible and functions as an urban activator. Framed by Lake Michigan on one side and Michigan Avenue on the other, it relates to diverse city-contexts and scales. The edges of the roof are parallel, but toward the center there is more complexity in the form.

The Burnham Pavilions will open to the public on June 19, 2009, when the Grant Park Symphony and Chorus will simultaneously premier a new work composed by Michael Torke called Plans that commemorates the words most often attributed to Daniel Burnham: 'Make No Little Plans.' The pavilions will close on October 31, 2009, when they will be dismantled for re-use or recycling.

At night, UNStudio's pavilion becomes a responsive architecture with LED lights that change color and pattern. These lights will be in constant flux as the number of visitors to the pavilion changes. Programmatically the pavilion invites people to gather, walk around and through the space "to explore and observe. It's sculptural form and reactive lights will spark curiosity and wonder in its visitors."

The responsive lighting program developed for the UNStudio pavilion is based on a color scheme derived from watercolor illustrations originally published in Daniel Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago. In the base of the pavilion, a grid of 42 Light fixtures and light sensors are embedded into the base of the pavilion,

Custom hardware and software has been developed to capture the visitors' presence in the pavilion, excavating layers of colors when stepping over the light fixtures.

Pavilion Design by UNStudio/Ben van Berkel, Caroline Bos (with Christian Veddeler and Wouter de Jonge)

Architect of Record: Garofalo Arcitects, Inc.
Fabricator: Third Coast Construction
Structural Engineer: Rockey Structures
Interactive Lighting Concept/Design: Daniel Sauter
Lighting Design: DEAR Productions, Inc.
Collaborating School of Architecture: University of Illinois at Chicago

Contributed Video (Spirit of Space): Burnham Pavilion Projects