Verdo Chimney

In the centre of Randers where the city meets the sea a 130m chimney rises and serves both as a landmark and as a part of Verdo’s district heating facility providing heat and electricity to residential and business customers around Central Jutland.
In a collaboration between Verdo and Kollision we developed a number of lighting concepts for illuminating the chimney. The concepts ranged from utilising the tall structure as a subtle dynamic beacon to an installation with actual display performance. Levelling the brand of Verdoand the central prominent location in the city, we implemented a concept primarily capable of communicating through colours and simple patterns - a colourful monument in the skyline of Randers.

The chimney is a well known structure for all local residents but even from the motorway the chimney with its characteristic belt is visible. By implementing three types of lighting fixtures the installation has different expressions depending on the distance it is viewed from.
The actual chimney pipe is illuminated by 36 powerful wash lights - 12 beneath and 24 above the belt - enabling light to flow around as well as up and down the 130m concrete pipe.
The belt itself is equipped with 48 LED strips creating a low resolution display running patterns and gradients - sometimes on its own and at other times in a symphony with the wash lights on the chimney pipe.
The last light ingredient is 12 movingheads installed on top of the belt.
On days with moisture in the air they will illuminate the surrounding night sky and extend its reach as waves of narrow dynamic colourful beams. On weekdays and at night the chimney is mainly dressed in Verdo green and white - whereas on other occasions colours relating to special events will illuminate the structure.

Kollision has been facilitating the design process, developed lighting concepts and designed the layout of the installation. Verdo installed all hardware and Kollision programmed the installation and developed all content through Kollision’s MAP player.

Movie by Jakob Lerche.