Lighting

_Linear Track Systems _Understanding UV _Portable Lamps

the Canadian Pacific Railway slices through the heart of the city, dividing the downtown core from the Beltline neighbourhood. On a daily basis, tens of thousands of vehicles and pedestrians transit below its hulking underpasses, key gateways that have deteriorated over the years. Commissioned by the City of Calgary as part of a larger rehabilitation project, local firm Marc Boutin Architectural Collaborative reanimated the dreary 4th Street SW underpass with a corridor of light and colour. “It’s pragmatic and poetic,” says principal Marc Boutin, “a combination of traffic infrastructure, urban armature and public art woven together.”

At the beginning of the design process, the firm analyzed how pedestrians moved through the subterranean space. “As people descended into the underpass, it changed how they acted,” says Boutin. “They became mechanized. Their heads didn’t turn from side to side.” Working in collaboration with renowned Polish artist Krzysztof Wodiczko, who is known for his provocative light and video projections, MBAC designed a space that functions as a new stage for interaction.

Running on software developed by technology studio INVIVIA of Cambridge, Massachusetts, threemetre-tall interactive LED screens sense the movement of passersby and then render an abstracted avatar on additional LED displays on the opposite wall, separated