Dexia-tower

Place Rogier (Saint-Josse-ten-Noode)
Brussels, Belgium see image map

Architect of the tower:
Samyn and Partners & Michel Jaspers & Partners
Lighting engineer: Barbara Hediger
Lightening system by: space canon

Measuring 145 metres from top to bottom and counting 38 floors, the Dexia Tower see image dexia-tower is the third highest building in Brussels built in 2004-2005 replacing the former Martini-tower, one of the first European multi-functional towers and a former city landmark see image brussels-ranking The Tower is visible from several major traffic arteries in the capital and is situated precisely in the middle of the Mint Square - North Station axis. see image cityview-day
It has a trapezium-shaped footprint covering an area of 4,400 square metres. see image iroqoui

The building has a total of 6,000 windows behind each is a lighting fixture consisting on average of 12 light bulbs, each with three LEDs - a green, a red and a blue - that can be combined into a complete colour palette. see image RGB-windowsThe building with its 6000 windows each containing 72 LED's can fire up to 420000 Watt of Light. A rapid change in the colour of the lamps instantaneously gives an impression of movement. The facade can show figures, letters, geometric shapes with various effects and also graphic designs. see image touch-project To start the lighting system, all blinds should be closed as the LED's are not strong enough to light up each window by its own. The reflection on the closed blind illuminates the whole surface of the window.
see image close-up-night

The system is controlled by a central computer. The result is entered in a programme to be translated for the lighting system by the computer.The data are sent through a rapid computer network to three distribution centres spread out on the various floors of the tower constituting a network of 25 Km cables running through the building from the first till the thirty-ninth floor.These centres translate the data for groups of about 100 windows. These data are then distributed to the 100 footlights of each group, which will receive their individual data through a small integrated computer. They will then determine the proportion of red, green and blue necessary to obtain the colour wanted for this particular window. The supercomputer calculates more than 20 images per second and each of the 6000 windows has such a small computer to check the colour to be displayed about 20 times per second The Dexia Tower is equipped with a highly effective energy-saving LED lighting system (electroluminescent diods). Each led, at its maximum capacity, uses 1 watt. As a result of the various colour and movement effects, this maximum capacity is never achieved. The different creations presented so far have never exceeded one third of this total capacity.

During the night, the tower is illuminated 9 hours in the winter and 5 hours in the summer. Recent tests reveal that the Dexia Tower uses about a third less electricity than the Eiffel Tower in Paris, while the energy required to light a football stadium costs no less than seven times the energy consumed by the Tower. The tower is a building with former three (4200 windows) and since 2009 four (6000 windows) illuminated facades, visible both in the neighbourhood and from distance.
see image view from distance 1
see image view from distance 2
see image view from distance 3
see image view from distance 4
see image view from distance 5

The tower emerges from the city like a signal and contributes to Brussels landscape.

The enlightening philosophy of the tower focuses on the tower to become a major urban landmark which due to its artistic projects, all expressing in an abstract manner the relationship between art-architecture and the city, should establish the tower as a light sign, an urban sign. In this respect the three main axes for the enlightening are:

a permanent illumination (ex. Who's afraid of RGB, chrono.tower)
see image chrono.tower project

an original creation every year (ex. Touch project in 2006)
see image touch project

a participation in a limited series of national and international events. (ex. Spectr[a]um)
see image spectr[a]um event

offical text from www.dexia-tower.com