Federal Treasury, Moscow

All projectsFederal Treasury, Moscow

Federal Treasury, Moscow

Russia

Erected in 1900, the building known as the Grand Hotel de Sibérie had been commissioned as a real estate investment by Nikolai Dmitrievich Stakheev, a rich and famous merchant owner of a prosperous trading company, which used to distribute grain, sugar and tea throughout almost the entire Russian Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries. When Stakheev and his family emigrated to Paris after the Revolution, all their properties in Moscow were nationalized. This huge five-story building, which at the beginning was reserved mainly to commercial business and trades, shops and warehouses, bookstores as well as apartments and a hotel, became a state property serving henceforward the needs of the Russian government.

After being abandoned in the late ‘90s, the building was declared cultural heritage of regional significance in 2016 and subsequently submitted to a major restoration plan due by the end of 2018. Involving the exterior and interior structure, the general renovation of the new Federal Treasury building has been fulfilled respecting and preserving the original features of the building, its colour scheme, architectural and decorative design and structure, the global interior and exterior layout.

Year

2018

Lighting design

Tatiana Lyasina

Pictures

GRIVEN Russia

Lighting installation
As part of this major restoration plan, theFederal Treasury has been also equipped with a brand new outdoor architectural lighting system completely based on GRIVEN lighting fixtures.

Conceived by the lighting designer Tatiana Lyasina, the illumination scheme of the building is based on a well arranged symphony of tunable whites emitted by GRIVEN LED fixtures. Allowing the possibility to change the colour temperature range from 2700 to 6500K, the dynamic white configurations selected are capable of delivering an unprecedented white light output. The pure white light spectrum intensity management, which marks out all the chosen fixtures, is capable of creating a stunning visual rendering of warm tones, natural hues and cool shades altogether, thus offering an unmatched control over the creation of a vast range of the white light chromatic scale. In this particular project, different combinations of white shades applied to groups of recurring elements, diverse surfaces or repeating architectural details, enable the creation of completely different light patterns for the same object, refreshing the visual perception and appearance of the building over time.

While developing the lighting project for a building of great historical interest and cultural value like this, the appointed lighting designer, Tatiana Lyasina, had to take into consideration issues related to the urban location of the building, to its spatial volume, the complexity of its configuration, as well as to its structural composition. In order to highlight the many different architectural details of the building, Lyasina preferred an accurate accent lighting scheme focused on aesthetically striking elements. An elegant alternation of light and shadow makes them stand out while delivering a sensation of dynamic vitality and restless movement to the whole building.

The transposition of the conceived lighting design on the massive building required a remarkable number of lighting fixtures: 35 units of RUBY MC with medium optics in dynamic white configuration were used to light up the spaces between the windows up to the upper cornice. These medium-sized rounded spotlights, with in-built electronics and power supply unit, are ideal for spot lighting and wall grazing owing to the wide selection of exchangeable optics groups available, ranging from spot aperture beams to wide distribution. Moreover, their homogeneous light emission allows a perfect distribution on a rough surface like the silicate brick walls of the palace.

Almost 50 units of the ultra compact spotlight fixture MICRO-CLIP MK2 in warm white with wide or narrow optics have been chosen to enhance the crenelation of the upper cornice, which now stands out amazingly. 30 units of the graphic light shaper EKLIPSE in warm white colour configuration with elliptical optics have been used to softly enhance the arches overlooking the larger panoramic windows on the upper floor. Designed for specific application on windowsills, EKLIPSE highlights the inner frames or the outer edges of windows, balconies or repeating architectural elements, while designing appealing optical effects on residential, public, historical or artistic building façades. It can also be easily adjusted according to the different inclinations of windowsills in order to boost its performance.

14 ORPHEO S with double emission shaft fitted with narrow optics (downwards) and wide optics (upwards) have been installed onto the columns of the lower level. ORPHEO S is a wall-mount diﬀuser whose single or double vertical light shafts provide linear edge and corner applications with an elegant accent lighting effect that re-defines exterior façades with distinguished and consistent light strokes. The double light shaft version, on request, can feature independent LED and optics conﬁgurations combined with fully autonomous control of each LED cluster, enhancing absolute design ﬂexibility.

Moreover, in order to complete the lighting scheme with grazing effects of white light, almost 100 units of PARADE S-DW-20 linear bars with elliptical or elliptical wide optics were installed in fixed positions to enhance the façade decorations, the pediments and cartouches, the lower basis of the upper columns surrounding all the building, the upper turrets, and further decorative elements. The vast majority of lighting fixtures installed are DMX controllable or dimmable.