The VersaTubes create four 22.25m high vertical lighting columns in the lift cores of the building's central atrium.
This 'live art' was conceived by London-based architectural lighting practice Pritchard Themis as part of their lighting concept for the new AIB building which was designed by RKD Architects and constructed by Sisk to accommodate 4000 non-branch AIB staff.
The equipment supplied included 84 standard definition 1m VersaTubes, four standard definition half- metre VersaTubes and four custom-built .75m standard definition tubes. The .75 tubes are the last (top-most) in each of the runs, and were necessary for an exact fit into the space.
PID produced special video content to the client's brief, which includes a series of abstract patterns based on AIB's corporate blue and green colours. Because of the tall thin nature of the columns - giving a 356 x 4 pixel image - this had to be carefully thought-through to gain maximum impact.
The content is controlled via one Element Labs VersaDrive C1 controller, with local processing of four Element Labs B2 buffer boxes per Lift Core. The idea is that the client will also have the option of selecting alternative content to reflect different moods in the space.
(Jim Evans)
