Competition
Participation
Client
Jülich Research Centre GmbH
Artist
Yoshiyuki Miura
Visualisations
DAY & LIGHT
Period
2019
Project Team DAY & LIGHT
Frank Vetter
Appearance In the airspace of the Institute of Biosciences and Geosciences floats an object that is almost entirely made of space itself. Thousands of fine lines condense into luminous, cloud-like spheres that stand out clearly from the grey surroundings through their interplay of light and colour. Only through its own movement in space and three-dimensional vision does the sculpture reveal itself – like a mechanical hologram.
The arrangement of the spheres displays a continuous colour gradient from an unsaturated yellow to a rich red. It is based on the Fibonacci sequence (0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34), applied to colour and brightness gradations. Thus, the work connects mathematical order, natural growth processes, and sensory perception. The marked verticality draws the eye upwards and connects all floors across the atrium.
Material The sculpture is made from 3,481 hair-fine, multi-coated stainless steel cables. They are attached at the top to a lattice girder, weighted at the bottom, and held in shape by a second lattice girder. The object has an edge length of 69.6 x 69.6 cm and hangs approximately 2 m from the ceiling; structurally, it is anchored via a crossbeam above the plasterboard ceiling.
Lighting effects The colour development of the spheres is reminiscent of the course of sunrise and sunset. Warm white lighting at 2,700 K makes the colours shine intensely from within. Precisely aligned built-in downlights with a narrow beam angle avoid glare; their concentrated beams meet in the centre on the ground floor like a focused sunbeam. This creates a harmonious balance to the daylight on the 4th floor and an atmospherically pleasing impression of the space.
