Litecontrol’s low profile Latitude family has added the unique, sophisticated Vivid. This Cradle to Cradle Silver Certified fixture is a pendant-mounted, semi-indirect fixture with extruded aluminum housing, VCOptic Lens and sculpted end caps. Vivid also offers a side-glow feature that can incorporate theatrical color gels. Measuring a mere 1” high, the Vivid’s minimalistic design and optional side color bring style to any design.

“Castle on the Sea”

Photos by Yuriko Takagi

Wataru Ito, a student at the Tokyo University of Arts, spent four years creating “Castle on the Sea,” a one-of-a-kind origami cityscape made of Kent paper. The exquisite artwork, made by cutting and folding hundreds of pages of paper, is meticulously illuminated using Martin Professional LED and fiber optic lighting sources.

The 2.4 m x 1.8 m model, constructed using only a knife, glue and a hole punch, debuted on April 30th and won top prize at the University’s Grand Prix of Art Festival. The artwork is displayed on the artificial island of Umi Hotaru, a crossover point of the Trans-Tokyo Bay Highway, a bridge-tunnel across Tokyo Bay and the client on the project. It incorporates a church, school and factory surrounding a centerpiece castle, which is loosely based on Spain’s El Temple de la Sagrada Familia. A Ferris wheel, windmill and train are motorized to allow for movement.

Lighting the delicate artwork both internally and externally was a collaborative effort between Ito and the Nakajima Tatsuoki Lighting Design Laboratory Inc. Working from a theme of "The Seven Seas," LED was chosen to light the outside in order to avoid damage from ultraviolet and infrared rays with fiber optic used on the inside to avoid heat damage.

Two Martin fiber optic illuminators with CMY color mixing and full-range dimming are used to illuminate the piece from the inside, one mimicking window light while the other exposes the detailed architecture. A total of approximately 800 0.75mm optic fibers supplied by Yamanaka & Co., Ltd were inserted into the miniature castle. Installed in the ceiling of the glass display case that houses the work are five Martin RGBW full color mixing LED downlights (4 standard, 1 high power) used to simulate the various blues of the Seven Seas and to express the light of the sun and moon.

A PC is used for lighting control and programming. Special lighting programs can be used with customized color schemes on special occasions such as New Years, Valentines Day, Pink Ribbon Day or Christmas.