by Victor Manuel Gutierrez Sanchez, architect.
On October 28th, 2006 in Shangai, China, the city of San Luis Potosí was acknowledged with the Third Prize worldwide for its Master Plan Guide of Architectural and Monumental Lighting Project. This award was given by the Lighting Urban Community International (L.U.C.I.), first prize award was granted to Viena and second place for Leipzig.
With this acknowledgment, our city is incorporated to the world map of Light Cities, along with previously distinguished cities such as Paris, Moscow, Prague, Shangai, Montreal and Philadelphia; among other cites of the world recongnized for their urban direction depending on their lighting projects.
The technical director for this project was Gustavo Avilés, who has been assigned by the Secretary of Tourism of San Luis Potosi, with the original idea of illuminating just the Carmen Church. Soon, authorities and specialists noticed that illuminating one building only, no matter how important this monument is, was not enough and that a general lighting concept applied to the city’s historical center was required.
As Avilés stated: “Lighting up a temple was like chosing a decorative theme, these type of actions generate fraction in the urban space and de-structure it”. Even a project that would include Carmen Square would not generate a vision of a city as a whole, presenting an incoherent scheme.
That’s why the State Government required the implementation of a Master Plan focused on restoring identity to the downtown zone of the city, presenting it as a cultural atraction. This project embraces eight public spaces and their surrounding streets, with integral actions to urban lighting like underground hardwiring, green areas, route correction of some streets, signposting, quarry retrieving and the cleaning of graffitti, in other words, an urban renovation on a scale that involves other specialists.
With the participation of several institutions, this project is based on the european experience of historical center recovering actions by illuminating them, and consists of seven phases, in a process that will take three and a half years. Currently the 3rd stage is being initiated, which deals with Founders’ Square, Arms Square and San Juan de Dios Garden. The previous stages included Carmen Square, San Agustin, San Francisco and Aranzazu, where an urban circuit of a nocturnal touristic route is seeked.
Technically, lighting can be considered as an art, since it integrate both the aesthetic view of the buildings and the urban lighting of the city. The case of San Luis Potosi is unique in Mexico for the extention of the project as much as for its unification of decisions at a government level. In a strategy within social range, being protection, safety, touristic attraction, historical identity, control and energy saving as its main design premises.
The project is self sustainable due to the fact that it is neither ornamental nor expensive. Furthermore it will generate 40% decrease of electrical energy as it is in full operation.
In its original concept, the project had to inverte existing criteria, “illuminating the architecture more than the streets”, because our city, just like many others, presented intense lamps on poles that impeded seeing the buildings, which is why lowering the brightness levels and the energy usage was proposed, carrying out the lighting on to the monuments. This concept should not be interpreted lightly, claiming unsafeness, although lamps of great intensity not necessarily imply better safety, because they limit long reach vision at night.
As the specialist stated: “Any effort without illumination gets halfway down the road”. This project intends to make us reconsider our own city, lighting it architecturally. Avilés, the same as the bulgarian artist known as Christo -who is worldly famous for wrapping monuments and landscapes-, claims that after illuminating the city with architectural intentions, we willnever look at our buildings in the same way. With this aesthetic point of view, “illuminating becomes a creative craft while it retrieves symbols and re-stablishes memory”.
Creating along the way a sense of apreciation by society of their public spaces by being able to live them, people value them and take care of these spaces.This project still in its middle stages, already has its social anecdotes, people are again getting together downtown and new meeting points like art galleries, coffee shops, etc., have veen opened. This space, previously used in popular activities such as informal commerce, is becoming an inclusive space of greater cultural diversity at different social levels, throughout very clear transformations and people have noticed it.
With this acknowledgment, our city is incorporated to the world map of Light Cities, along with previously distinguished cities such as Paris, Moscow, Prague, Shangai, Montreal and Philadelphia; among other cites of the world recongnized for their urban direction depending on their lighting projects.
The technical director for this project was Gustavo Avilés, who has been assigned by the Secretary of Tourism of San Luis Potosi, with the original idea of illuminating just the Carmen Church. Soon, authorities and specialists noticed that illuminating one building only, no matter how important this monument is, was not enough and that a general lighting concept applied to the city’s historical center was required.
As Avilés stated: “Lighting up a temple was like chosing a decorative theme, these type of actions generate fraction in the urban space and de-structure it”. Even a project that would include Carmen Square would not generate a vision of a city as a whole, presenting an incoherent scheme.
That’s why the State Government required the implementation of a Master Plan focused on restoring identity to the downtown zone of the city, presenting it as a cultural atraction. This project embraces eight public spaces and their surrounding streets, with integral actions to urban lighting like underground hardwiring, green areas, route correction of some streets, signposting, quarry retrieving and the cleaning of graffitti, in other words, an urban renovation on a scale that involves other specialists.
With the participation of several institutions, this project is based on the european experience of historical center recovering actions by illuminating them, and consists of seven phases, in a process that will take three and a half years. Currently the 3rd stage is being initiated, which deals with Founders’ Square, Arms Square and San Juan de Dios Garden. The previous stages included Carmen Square, San Agustin, San Francisco and Aranzazu, where an urban circuit of a nocturnal touristic route is seeked.
Technically, lighting can be considered as an art, since it integrate both the aesthetic view of the buildings and the urban lighting of the city. The case of San Luis Potosi is unique in Mexico for the extention of the project as much as for its unification of decisions at a government level. In a strategy within social range, being protection, safety, touristic attraction, historical identity, control and energy saving as its main design premises.
The project is self sustainable due to the fact that it is neither ornamental nor expensive. Furthermore it will generate 40% decrease of electrical energy as it is in full operation.
In its original concept, the project had to inverte existing criteria, “illuminating the architecture more than the streets”, because our city, just like many others, presented intense lamps on poles that impeded seeing the buildings, which is why lowering the brightness levels and the energy usage was proposed, carrying out the lighting on to the monuments. This concept should not be interpreted lightly, claiming unsafeness, although lamps of great intensity not necessarily imply better safety, because they limit long reach vision at night.
As the specialist stated: “Any effort without illumination gets halfway down the road”. This project intends to make us reconsider our own city, lighting it architecturally. Avilés, the same as the bulgarian artist known as Christo -who is worldly famous for wrapping monuments and landscapes-, claims that after illuminating the city with architectural intentions, we willnever look at our buildings in the same way. With this aesthetic point of view, “illuminating becomes a creative craft while it retrieves symbols and re-stablishes memory”.
Creating along the way a sense of apreciation by society of their public spaces by being able to live them, people value them and take care of these spaces.This project still in its middle stages, already has its social anecdotes, people are again getting together downtown and new meeting points like art galleries, coffee shops, etc., have veen opened. This space, previously used in popular activities such as informal commerce, is becoming an inclusive space of greater cultural diversity at different social levels, throughout very clear transformations and people have noticed it.
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