Completed in 2003, the Moonscape at Plantation Place was one of Architainment’s first major projects for Color Kinetics. The laser-etched glass panels were backlit by 100 ColorBlast 12 colour-changing LED fixtures, powered by PDS-150 power supplies and controlled by an iPlayer 2.
Plantation Place was developed by Arup for British Land. The development comprised of two buildings separated by a new street, Plantation Lane. The moonscape is the main feature of Plantation Lane, a 41 m by 6 m glass art wall. The moonscape is a reproduction of a photograph known as ‘Farside Terra’ showing the highlands on the dark side of the moon. The original photograph was taken by Apollo 16 astronaut Kenneth Mattingly in April 1972.
The Moonscape forms part of an artwork called ‘Time and Tide’ created by Simon Patterson and Arup. Time is represented by a series of textual lists embedded into the pavement which chart events, people, places, and institutions related to the City’s past and present. The Moonscape represents the Tide element, with the colour of the backlit glass panels changing slowly over time to create a dramatic effect.
The Moonscape image is printed across a set of 68 large translucent glass panels, manufactured by Austrian glass specialist Vandaglas. Each panel is approximately 1.5m by 2.4m in size, with 4 smaller panels completing each end of the structure. The glass panels are attached to an aluminium frame, supported by steel uprights.
The back-lighting comes from an array of 100 Color Kinetics ColourBlast 12 colour changing LEDs fixtures set inside the top and bottom of the framework. Twenty years ago, these were cutting edge fixtures, and while this particular product is no longer available, Color Kinetics ColourBlast products still form part of the broad portfolio of high-quality LED lighting solutions that we supply today.