Glowing river of Oulu

Oulu is the northern capital of Finland where polar nights dominate the winters. The park zone stretching through the city center has grown alongside a flowing stream. Stream sides were originally left empty to protect the wooden infrastructure of the city from fire spread. This was taken as the leading concept of the park lighting design making the parks glow like amber in the night.

The lighting of the parks was realised with customised RGB-led-luminaires and their shades were carefully selected at the factory by the designers. By mixing red, green and white leds a glowing colour was established. In Lyötynpuisto and Hallituspuisto the lights also have a subtle movement, slowly fading and strenghtening like flame.

In addition to hightlighting landscape elements in the parks, the walkway lighting was also renewed. Wood and steel poles continue the warm color scheme and create an unique and coherent view and orientate the visitor through the city. Each park also got its own lit up park sign that was attached to the wooden poles.

The project was introduced at the 2018 Lumo Light Festival as one of the participating lighting pieces.

The work was also presented in Finnish lighting review Valo in January 2019. You can read the article in finnish in Lehtiluukku.