Signify to Illuminate Up to 15 London, UK Bridges with Connected Lighting

December 10, 2018

Signify, formerly Philips Lighting, has been named the connected lighting partner to illuminate up to 15 of London’s iconic bridges by 2022. The contract was awarded by the Illuminated River Foundation to reinvigorate the city’s famous River Thames bridges. Signify won the contract to supply its Interact Landmark system and Philips Color Kinetics LED luminaires, which will light up the bridges with dynamic, artistic lighting effects via its centrally managed software. In addition, Signify will provide lifecycle services to remotely monitor and manage the connected bridge lighting for the next 10 years.

This is the first time there has been a holistic strategy to light up all of central London’s bridges. The aim is to create a multi-level visual experience for the bridges viewed by pedestrians on the bridges, from London’s riverbanks, from the air, from tall buildings, and by boat.

The Illuminated River Foundation ran an international design competition for the lighting design, which was won by international artist Leo Villareal and London architects, Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands. Signify was awarded the project because of its global breadth and expertise in lighting, its ability to deliver a large-scale, connected lighting project, and its experience working with lighting designers and architects on the management of dynamic, architectural lighting scenes.

“London’s bridges are world famous but had become overlooked in terms of their potential to transform our capital city at night,” says Sarah Gaventa, Director, Illuminated River Foundation. “What we are doing now, in partnership with Signify, to transform the bridges and riverfront, is groundbreaking. We are using dynamic, energy-efficient LED lighting for the first time on up to 15 London Bridges with Signify’s Interact Landmark system to create public art on the largest scale ever seen.”

Phase one, beginning now, will see four bridges illuminated by mid-2019 with connected Philips Color Kinetics LED luminaires, featured on the world-famous London Bridge, Cannon Street Railway Bridge, Southwark Bridge and Millennium Bridge. Signify’s Interact Landmark system will remotely monitor and manage the lighting on all four bridges. For the first time, this will see Cannon Street Railway Bridge illuminated as well as both the tops and undersides of the other three bridges. This will allow far more extensive, three-dimensional lighting effects to enhance the areas surrounding the bridges and facilitate safety.

Once completed, the Illuminated River Project will be the longest public art commission in the world, at 2.5 miles in length — equivalent to 44 football pitches laid end-to-end along 4.5 nautical miles of the River Thames.

More than 22,000 connected Philips Color Kinetics LED light points, capable of displaying over 16 million colours, will be used to create dynamic lighting effects on up to 15 London bridges: London Bridge; Southwark Bridge; Cannon Street Bridge; Millennium Bridge; Blackfriars Railway Bridge; Golden Jubilee Bridge, Waterloo Bridge; Blackfriars Bridge; Lambeth Bridge; Vauxhall Bridge; Westminster Bridge; Grosvenor Bridge; Chelsea Bridge; Albert Bridge; Tower Bridge. Every year there are 200 million crossings over the 15 London bridges 

Image source: Illuminated River Foundation