Silo 468
Once again Finland is on our radar – and once again it's reclaiming urban spaces with a novel, illuminating twist.
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As with the urban farming Turn Table project and the subterranean Muru Pop Down in Tytyri, Silo 468 is a far cry from your typical pop-up fodder (luxury restaurants set within in old greasy-spoon cafés, for example).
Designed by Tapio Rosenius (of the Madrid-based Lighting Design Collective), Silo 468 sees a vast oil silo in Helsinki perforated by 2012 holes in the name of urban regeneration and illumination. Driven by bespoke swarm-modelled software, 1280 daylight-balanced LED domes and 450 movable steel mirrors respond to live climatological data including temperature, wind speed, and air clarity to create an organic, and thoroughly non-repetitive light show that interacts with its immediate natural environment.
As a concept, it's a pleasing and aesthetically satisfying application of live data viz. But Silo 468 also demonstrates a particularly pleasing interaction between artists and city planners, as well as between urban developers and the natural environment.
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