New architectural lighting should appear to the World Cup on football in Kazan

(KZN.RU, February 2, Anton Nozdrin). New architectural and artistic lighting should appear to the World Cup on football in Kazan. Zhanna Belitskaya, the deputy head of the Architecture and Urban Planning of Kazan and the head of the department of urban design, told Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, about basic principles of lighting concept within the report of the building block.

“At night, the city has no “face”, there are many gaps and holes”, Zh. Belitskaya outlined the situation with the architectural illumination of Kazan. In her opinion, it is necessary to develop the concept of light. According to her, despite the fact that only 16 highlighting projects are agreed, entrepreneurs have the demand for such work since 2011, but there are no qualitative proposals.

It will be impossible to build a harmonious light image of the city at night to the touch: it requires the work of professionals who are able to present the whole picture in the complex. Firstly a competent light zoning is needed, which includes the definition of the relevant priority decoration sites: the main streets, embankments, panoramas, visual accents, squares, bridges, objects of cultural heritage. Now, unfortunately, one element is often dissonant to another, or overshadowed by it. Lighting accents are often made arbitrarily. An example of this is the existing lights on the Sibgat Hakim Street, which does not include the family center “Kazan”. The emphasis there is only on residential development. Another problem of the city is the commitment to the catchy solutions and colors. “However, brightly does not mean beautiful”, marked Belitskaya. “The basic principle is an intelligent lighting, excluding light pollution”.

Management specialists held the All-Russian Conference “Light and Color” in Kazan in fall of 2016. The event was attended by projectors, architects, designers, lighting developers of Kazan, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Ufa and other cities. As Zh. Belitskaya described, the conference participants noted the positive experience of St. Petersburg with its soft lighting.

I. Metshin supported the idea of a unified concept of light and color solutions in the city and instructed to intensify work in this direction.