“Kobe — the City of Light ” — llumination of the Kobe City Museum

Photo 1 Overview

Outline

From January 17 to September 30, the City of Kobe held a festival called Kobe2001— the People, the City, the Future (Kobe 21st Century — commemorating the city's recovery)" with cooperation among residents, companies, and the municipal government, as a way of showing its appreciation to all those who helped out after the Kobe Earthquake in 1995. The goal of the event was to recreate Kobe as "The City of Light" — a city overflowing with appeal in the 21st Century — using light, which represents one of the key elements of the City's operations.

One part of this festival was an illumination design contest using various buildings and other structures around the city. The contest was held to emphasize the theme of "light" as one of the attractive elements of Kobe's nightscape (Photo 2). The Kobe City Museum, which won the top prize in this competition, was lit up from May 2001, and continues to be used as one of Kobe's most prized nighttime scenic illumination resources for the 21st Century.

The Kobe City Museum was originally constructed in 1935 as a bank in the former foreign settlement area of Kobe, and is currently registered as a national cultural asset. It was reopened as a museum in 1982, based on the theme of "Contact and Changes in International Cultural Exchanges between East and West."

Lighting Fixtures

The illumination concept is "The beauty of darkness as reflected through history"; that is, instead of simply lighting up the building mechanically, the plan use shadow effectively, in part to save energy. Because the museum is a national cultural asset, the lighting facilities were designed with close attention to avoiding construction that would require drilling holes or causing other damage to the building itself.

(1) In the center segment of the building, the silhouette of the pillars is brought out impressively using 150 W high color rendering high pressure sodium lamps, with designer illumination pillars (Photo 4) installed at both sides of the concrete pillars to emphasize volume (Photo 1).

(2) At the two extreme ends of the buildings, 12 V / 50 W reflective halogen lamps were used to create lighting that clearly emphasizes the presence of the corners, while at the same time drawing attention to the unseen segments as well (Photo 1).

(3) The top of the building is lit indirectly using tube lights, creating a graceful line separating the building and the sky.

(4) The display of the building's name is effectively emphasized using 70 W high color rendering metal halide lamps, which are installed alongside the existing spotlights that illuminate the street below.

The goal of this lighting was to achieve a harmony between this historic building and its surroundings, without harming the stately image of this structure, which is so representative of the City of Kobe.

Location	Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture
Client	Kobe City
Design	Iwasaki Electric Co., Ltd.
Completion	May 2001
Materials provided by Association Members Hiromi Ishioka (Iwasaki Electric Co., Ltd.) Kotaro Maruyama (Iwasaki Electric Co., Ltd.) ©Iwasaki Electric Co., Ltd.; 2001