Designed and built by University of St Joseph (Macau) third- and fourth-year architecture students, Pulse Bamboo Pavilion was on display at Plaza Sai Van, adjacent to Macau Tower, from 1-10 June 2013. Led by two guest professors, the students choose Traxon’s Dot XL-9 system to create an astonishing lighting effect at night.

Background and Concept

Being classified as a department of Faculty of Creative Industries in University of St Joseph (USJ), the Department of Architecture focuses on both architecture and urban planning. As an annual end-of-year event of the department, these students set up a bamboo-made decoration to express their practical knowledge. Supported Macau Foundation, they chose Macau Tower as the background of their creation.

The students’ concept was to build an architecture that simulates a catwalk surrounded by various vertical rings, and such a structure was to reveal a “walk-through” experience. They used bamboo rods (provided by Wing Yick Scaffolders)  to construct a complex structure looked like a huge spider’s web and interweaved several pieces of white and triangular fabric panels (provided by Wings Design Production Ltd.) as “rooftops” or “walls” of the web-like tunnel.

Feature and Product

The Pavilion was an inhabitable sculpture, a parametrically generated organic lattice structure. In order to vitalize it, they worked closely with Traxon Technology to install a series of LED lighting fixture; moreover, the adopted an interactive LED lighting system to dim light colors so the structure became more dynamic.

The bamboo pavilion was illuminated by over one thousand individual controlled dots of Traxon’s ultra-bright, fully-customizable Dot XL-9 system. Dot XL is controllable by DMX and e:pix/DVI input signals, and its Smart Chip technology and intelligent software allow maximum control of even the most intricate media scenarios. The e:cue Lighting Application (LAS) was used together with Butler XT2 and Butler S2 to control this installation via DMX. LAS provided an Action Pad control capability which integrates the system with a web server making it accessible via iPhone and Android mobile devices including color picker option. In addition to a range of spectacular pre-programmed lightshows, the bamboo lattice is lined with motion sensors that cause the LED lights to change in color and intensity as people move around and through the pavilion.

Photos