Lightsails / Söhne & Partner

Architects: Söhne & Partner
Location: Millstaetter Lake, Carinthia, Austria
Consultant: In Association with Karl Sodek
Client: MTG
Structural Engineer: Werkraum Wien
Project Year: 2008
Photographs: Gisela Erlacher

Lightsails as guiding symbols for the exhibition around the Millstaetter lake, Austria. The lighthouse is used as a metaphor to guide the visitors around the different exhibitions. Nowadays the lighthouse is used as a symbol of holidays, sea, adventure and water.

The objects are abstract sails, as a “light-space-installation”. The objects are orientated to the lake. The lake Millstättersee is getting a tribune out of water, because the energy of the lake is trapped, converted and reflected as light. So the sails are working as a transmitter and receiver at the same time.

The illumination is reacting to the surrounding – the more people approaching the sails the more vibrate light. The illumination is also reacting to the temperature – they are constantly changing the colour. The colder the temperature the warmer the colour if light is getting.