Christmas Lights Madrid

client: City Council Madrid
constructor: Ximenez SA
area: Puerta del Sol, Madrid
year: 2016
photography: Miguel de Guzmán/ Rocío Romero imagensubliminal
design: Ben Busche team: Philip Baumann, Elisa Luda
status: temporary/ built

Xmas tree for Puerta del Sol

The traditional Xmas tree in Puerta del Sol is a 35m high, conic shaped metal construction. The interior is accessible to public. The current City government wanted to regain an institutional design (instead of a design paid and realised by a sponsor) for an element that due to its location and significance defines the whole Christmas lighting programme of the City, and commissioned us with the design.
Given the artificial character of the tree, our design is the result of a digitalized interpretation of an image of a traditional pine tree. The computer programme that was applied (and conveniently manipulated) interprets the different textures and colours of the image of a traditional tree as topographic lines. These are visualised according to the “height” of each line with a degree of colours and a total of 42 000 LED light bulbs.

two triptychs for Puerta de Alcala

The Puerta de Alcala is one of the most iconic monuments in Madrid. For the last decade, a Nativity Scene had decorated the three central porticos in Xmas time, a design which we had been commissioned originally in 2006 and that we revisioned several times until its final design in LED realised in 2014 (as in the corresponding images). Challenged and enthusiastic about the task, we had elaborated a figurative triptych with the purpose to outbalance in our design the bearing of religious iconography with the seemingly weightlessness of the tableaus realised just in light.
For 2016 we were asked to realise a new non-figurative design for the same location. With equal passion we realised the current design (as in the corresponding images) maintaining the three porticos that compose the triptych, this time combining a pattern of lines and circles with acrylic glass pieces with a dichroic film that makes the installation appear subtly animated even during daytime.

triptych 2014

triptych 2016

Colour circle, Arenal + Carmen

The three streets (calle del Arenal, del Carmen and Preciados) where our light installation is located form roughly a circle in the old centre of Madrid connecting the Opera house with Puerta del Sol and plaza de Callao. The installation consists of 380 luminous flower motives that are suspended in an apparently random order creating an artificial ceiling of flourishing plants that softly change their colours while the spectator progresses along the street. Each of the four different types of motives combines light rope, light bulbs and cordon, is 3,20m high weighing less than 6kg.