Liniebrug Lighting
A unique and unobtrusive lighting design of a new cycling bridge.
In a small village along the Amsterdam-Rhine canal a new cycling bridge was about to be built. The Nigtevegt inhabitants were not very pleased with their view of the water and the polder being ruined by a big new concrete bridge. The contractors were therefore looking for a lighting solution that the Nigtevegt people could get behind by making it unobtrusive yet interesting.
This assignment was part of the Lighting Design course of the Master curriculum of the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at the TU Delft. The assignment was issued by the company IPV Delft, and the bridge we needed to design the lighting for did not exist at the time. It has since been built and is called the Liniebrug.
To gain perspective on the necessities of the lighting design, the wants and needs of the various stakeholders were mapped, as were all the steps in the user journey. The main concerns were the (sense of) safety of passing the bridge, the retention of the open view from the bridge and leaving the local inhabitants as well as fauna undisturbed. Another factor to aid in the acceptance of the local inhabitants was to have the experience of crossing the bridge interesting and unique.
With the limited information about the construction of the bridge, only rough sketches as seen above, a 3D model was made of the bridge to make sure all features and locations on the bridge were taken into account in the lighting design. Two cardboard mockups were made as well to try out the effect of different lighting techniques in real life.
Knowing all of the requirements of the stakeholders and the specifics of the bridge design, the actual lighting design was started. To keep the light from disturbing surrounding inhabitants, all the light sources should be kept between the railings and the road surface. To get people to like and enjoy the bridge, the lighting should be more interesting and unique than standard lanterns. Of course it should also light the path properly and provide the users with a sense of safety. After some exploration it was decided to continue with the water theme, since it has the added benefit of having the bridge blend into the environment more and give it a certain identity.
During the embodiment stage some final adjustments to the look of the water were made. It was decided to abstract the wave crest pattern slightly and to keep it static. The edge of the pedestrian curb and the lining was to be included in the design and light up. To properly light other users going in the opposite directions and to fill out the entire lighting plan there were also lights placed into the side railings, shining inwards as to not make the bridge overly visible from the village next to it. The floor lighting was achieved through tiling with LED lighting in a clear resin between the tiling, and the railing light by having LED strips in a tube, the inner half of which is translucent.
