Kauppakatu Pedestrian street of Jyväskylä, refurbished in 2012

Lighting Project of the Year 1997 in Finland / Vuoden valaistuskohde 1997. The function for the lighting is to transform the pedestrian precinct in the dark into an experiential space where even the weak-sighted can move easily. The lighting does not glare and the colour changing light lines on the sides of the luminaire poles form a guiding element. The pedestrian precinct is Finland’s first location where the special lighting of a street space was implemented, and in which lighting also works as environmental art. In its year of completion the use of indirect light and the technology of optical fibre lighting were new in Finland, and there were no existing models available. Therefore, a whole new lighting post was designed for the precinct. In 1997 the pedestrian precinct received the national Lighting Project of the Year award. The lighting posts were renovated in autumn 2012 and the colour of the indirect top light was changed from orange to white and the light line technology was recreated with programmable LEDs.