Out towards the fjord, there was an islet that is now Oslo's brand new arts district – Tjuvholmen. This is a commercially developed area where also the Italian star architect Renzo Piano has designed the new Astrup Fearnley Museum. The development of Tjuvholmen is characterized by architectural diversity. Buildings on the peninsula have been designed by architects with a clear vision of what the new district should provide for people living, working or spending leisure time there.
ÅF was requested by the Astrup Fearnley Museum to do an evaluation of two different technological alternatives as lighting options for future art exhibitions.
This assignment resulted in a total turnaround, where the museum chose to follow ÅFs recommendations of using LED technology. This choice is controversial as LED is said to have a poorer color rendering, especially in the red part of the spectral reproduction. By blind test it turned out, however, that the best lighting experience and rendering of colors where made by LED. ÅF is now preparing the special lighting of the new museum.
Lighting of the "Sneak Peak" and the Icon Complex
Right next to the new museum is a tower made of steel and glass, originally called the Icon Tower. After a naming contest where young students were invited to participate, the official name was changed to “Sneak Peak”. This tower is 72 meters tall, and visitors can enjoy a great view of Oslo from 55 meters in the sky.
Going forward the two main tasks for ÅF is now to light up the roof surface of the museum, and create a staging and dynamic lighting of the “Sneak Peak”. In addition to this our lighting designers and engineers are working with several different assignments inside and around the Icon Complex at Tjuvholmen.
This project is an example of the added value created within ÅF when several departments acquire special expertise from each other.