Let there be light

The best and most beautiful lighting money can buy. Every year on 6th January we celebrate the three wise men who came from the East to the Promised Land where they found the baby in the manger wrapped in swaddling bands. On their journey, so the legend says, their only guide was a star that led them from on high.

This might be why bright stars play such an important role in our Christmas decorations, as demonstrated by the strings of large and small lights that adorn our streets, houses and not least our Christmas trees.

Light at Christmas does of course also have another significance. It makes the days, which in the middle of December are the shortest all year, a little brighter. This represents a significant reason as to why light is of such fundamental importance to the organisers of a Christmas market of this size.

We have therefore decided to get the best and most beautiful lighting money can buy, and not entirely as a coincidence, also the most environmentally friendly. The Austrian company Blachere-Illumination is market leader across Europe in the field of lighting designs for streets, squares and buildings. The experts from the city of Wels in Upper Austria have previously cast their artistic light on the Champs-Élysées and Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Sony Center in Berlin, Red Square in Moscow and the World Exhibition in Seville among others. In its work the company does not just limit itself to concentrating on aesthetics, it also always deals with the issue of using the available resources in a sustainable manner.

To this end the company erected four wind turbines in France in 2007, which generate around a quarter of the company's annual energy consumption. Over and above that, the company's installations make use of a high capacity system that uses energy-efficient LED lights and solar panels. This means that a portion of the energy needed to light our Christmas Market at night will be generated during the day from sunlight.

However, it does not matter how sustainable the technology employed is if the atmosphere is not right. The light architects at Blachere have thus developed a concept designed especially to suit the specific conditions of the space in front of Cologne cathedral. A multi-dimensional light canopy with an area of around 1000m2 will stretch above Roncalliplatz resembling a gigantic star from above. However this installation, the like of which has never been seen before, will not be leading any wise men from the East to Cologne. Instead we look forward to welcoming lots of visitors attracted by the reflected glow of the Christmas market on the cathedral.