Market Square “Alte Baumwolle” Floeha, Germany

Architectural Lighting Design for Day and Night

Architecture, Light and Spatial Design – A New Civic Heart for Flöha

At Flöha’s “Alte Baumwolle”, a former cotton mill is becoming a new town centre. After two decades of decay, outstanding industrial architecture and new public spaces come together to create a market square with a distinctive identity. Our day-and-night lighting concept supports this transformation, connecting buildings, public space and urban life.

The design embodies our three complementary disciplines: architecture, light and Spatial Design. We see light as an integral part of shaping space: it reveals architectural qualities, strengthens connections within the urban setting and creates places where people enjoy spending time. Precise, functional illumination and artistic accents combine to form an integrated urban work of art, experienced by day and by night.

Four layers of light shape the square. Custom-designed lighting masts provide precise, standards-compliant illumination, reveal the texture of the historic cobblestones and give the space rhythm and depth. In daylight, they also serve as distinctive design elements. Carefully controlled optics keep functional light away from façades, windows and planting.

As evening becomes night, changing lighting scenes connect the market square with the surrounding mill buildings. Lighting for the water features and seating areas helps define the space and invites people to meet, sit and stay. Small artistic interventions enrich everyday life with moments of surprise and poetry.

By day, sunlight becomes part of the design. Reflection, transmission and colour create changing patterns across the square’s surfaces. They move with the sun, disappear and return with the seasons. The interplay of light, material and space invites people to rediscover a familiar place.

Lighting for the new restaurant and glasshouse will complete the composition: old and new, architecture and public space, day and night – connected through light.

For us, “Contemporary Heritage” begins with the decision to preserve and revitalise existing buildings and spaces. Contemporary design complements this heritage, revealing new qualities and opening up new uses. At the Alte Baumwolle, light supports this transformation, making the market square welcoming and safe throughout the year.

Our principle is simple: light where we need it, darkness where we do not. Precise optics protect homes from intrusive light. Planted areas remain dark as refuges for insects and other wildlife. Lighting follows activity: from 100% in the early evening to 75% later in the evening and 25% late at night, when decorative lighting is also switched off.

Sustainability also encompasses social interaction and a sense of belonging. A market square that becomes the town’s “living room” – a place to meet, play, sit and talk – has lasting value. Architecture, light and Spatial Design work together to create a public space that people enjoy, use and care about.

Fotos: Peter Fischer

Enhancing the Luther Monument in Berlin

Through the Interplay of Architecture, Light, and Art

Proposal for the Negotiated Procedure: Monuments and Memorials, Contracting Authority: GRÜN BERLIN GmbH

Artistic Concept

This proposal is founded on the belief that powerful public spaces do not require many elements.

Rather than elevating Luther above the people, the monument returns him to ground level, restoring a direct human relationship. The sculpture is part of everyday life, inviting reflection rather than reverence. There are no monumental barriers, no stone seating, walls or physical obstacles that separate the figure from the public street. Instead, the design expresses the idea of Volksnähe—Luther among the people.

The intervention is composed of four elements:

• Luther
• The Ground
• A Light Mast
• An Information Point

Concentric circles radiate from the monument, expressing the continuing influence of Luther’s ideas. They represent the outward expansion of his revolutionary thinking—from the individual to society, from the local to the global. The black and white stone circles suggest a pulsating energy going out from Luther’s revolutionary personality and moment in time that resonates today and into the future.

Light is used with precision and restraint. A single luminaire illuminates Luther’s face and the open book, drawing attention to the moment of reading. It symbolises the light of the Reformation—the illumination of knowledge, language and individual thought. Here, light becomes more than illumination; it becomes the medium through which an idea continues to be heard and seen across time.

The illuminated information point provides historical interpretation through text and QR access to further digital content. Its dichroic glass changes continuously with daylight, weather and the movement of the observer, while after dark it becomes a quiet beacon within the square. The monument is therefore never static, but constantly renewed through the changing qualities of natural and artificial light and movement of the viewer.

The result is a place of reflection that is historically sensitive, spatially calm and unmistakably contemporary—a restrained intervention where architecture, art and light work together to make history present and accessible.

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Light Sculpture and Welcome Signage for Thermalbad Wiesenbad

Architectural city-marketing and orientation elements for the spa town

For the well-known Saxon spa town of Thermalbad Wiesenbad, we developed a cohesive and distinctive welcome and wayfinding system that combines orientation, recognizability, and a strong culture of hospitality within the public realm. The objective is a clear, high-quality address to all arriving visitors, as well as a positive and friendly farewell for those departing.

At all town entrances, welcome signs approximately three meters in height are planned. Designed in a contemporary, reduced formal language, they mark the transitions into and out of the town. Clear typography, high-quality materials, and an individual mode of address create trust, provide orientation, and leave a positive first impression.

The system is complemented by a four-meter-high artistic-architectural light sculpture serving as a central landmark within the roundabout. It translates the signet of the thermal baths into a contemporary three-dimensional form, uniting regional heritage, the power of the thermal springs, and the spa tradition into a clearly legible symbol. Its perforated metal structure and integrated lighting ensure a strong presence by day and a powerful long-range visibility at night. As a visual guiding element, the sculpture structures space, directs sightlines, and supports intuitive orientation at a key traffic node.

Together, the sculpture and the welcome signs form a coherent city-marketing and orientation system. They translate the identity of the spa town into a contemporary design language, strengthen its presence within the urban space, and shape the image of Thermalbad Wiesenbad — clear, welcoming, and memorably enduring.

Jesse Owens Information Sculpture

Place of Remembrance at Olympic Stadium Berlin

Ruairí O’Brien developed the concept for a place of remembrance in front of the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, dedicated to the American track and field athlete James Cleveland “Jesse” Owens. At the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Owens won four gold medals in the 100 metres, long jump, 200 metres and 4 × 100 metres relay, becoming the most successful athlete of the Games. His triumph powerfully disproved the racist ideology of National Socialism.

The memorial sculpture combines architecture, light, history and movement to create a spatial experience. A transparent structure in front of the stadium takes the 100-metre track as its narrative line. Reflective and optical elements direct sunlight during the day and, at night, create a precise drawing in light that makes Owens’ run, his speed and the moment of victory tangible.

The result is a place between remembrance, perception and physical experience. Visitors do not simply look at a sculpture; they move along a story. Light, reflection, scale and rhythm make speed and time visible — inviting visitors to see, think, read, learn, ask and enjoy.

Middle Building of Dora Concentration Camp Memorial, Nordhausen

Redesign of the didactic development of the tunnel complex

Competition entry, 3rd place

Our concept “Points and Lines” consists of two elements: Points of information and lines of paths in between. This concept includes the didactic idea that the light line guides the visitors and the information pillars (points) mark the destinations.
The information pillars or information light sculptures, convey the story and give the guided tours gathering points where the visitors get visual information and explanations together by the guide.
The light lines are guiding elements that lead to these information points and at the same time illuminate the space.
Both the information modules and the lighting are clearly different in their design from the original environment and thus convey a contrast to the original historic gallery. Since the exhibition elements are placed away from the walls and ceiling, they can be displayed while showing the surrounding environment.

We are pleased to have won third place in this competition with numerous renowned participants.

You can find our concept in detail here.

Columbia Concentration Camp Memorial

Artistic-architectural concept for marking and visualizing the historical site

The Columbia concentration camp was one of the first concentration camps at the time of the National Socialists and was located at the northern edge of the Berlin Tempelhof airport site, with whose construction it was demolished.

With the aim of making the building and this part of German history perceptible again in the public space, the “Topography of Terror” Foundation organized a design competition to which Ruairí O’Brien was invited to submit a proposal.

Our concept, which is in line with the preservation order and barrier-free, is purposefully kept simple. A band of Corten steel is used to mark the footprint and volume of the disappeared building in parts on the original site.

The entire area can thus be experienced in a multi-layered way. Through the prominent bridge and the large gravel surfaces, the area can be perceived on different levels. As the viewer moves, his perspective changes, creating new spaces for thought. At the same time, the footbridge is a signal with a long-distance effect that provides a distinctive reference to the memorial site and also offers the possibility of accessing the entire site.

Sponsor: Topography of Terror Foundation

Project partner: Slapa und die Raumplaner

Prefabricated Construction Museum “Concrete Timeline”, Dresden

Museum project on wasteland revitalization, urban and building history

The wasteland in Dresden-Johannstadt was revitalized by Ruairi O’Brien from 2002-2005 through the creation of the Prefabricated Construction Museum “Concrete Timeline”. In the micro museum for prefabricated construction, the architect thematizes diverse time periods specific to the site and its history. Likewise, universal questions from the fields of housing, culture, architecture and urban planning, art and society, which also affect future developments, are presented.
For more information on the project, click here

Euthanasia Information and Memorial Site, Berlin Tiergartenstrasse

Competition entry for the design competition Memorial and Information Site for the Victims of the National Socialist “Euthanasia” Murders at the site of the planning headquarters, Tiergartenstraße 4 in Berlin.

Based on the artistic core idea of creating a dialogue between the spatial expression for the commemoration of the victims, the sculptural “pool of tears” and the site of the perpetrators with the ground plan of the building Tiergartenstrasse 4, both a mental and emotional approach to the topic of “euthanasia” murders becomes possible.

Awarded by: City of Berlin, 2012