Project: Klotild Palace

A lighting intervention, free from rhetorical or decorative references, was requested for the nineteenth century Klotild Palace, which overlooks a twin building and is located on the "Pest" side of Budapest, in order to convey a night view of the palace that would blend harmoniously into its urban context. The use of small projector lamps, with varying beam angles and with controlled emission of light, placed directly onto the façade, ensures accessibility and safety for future maintenance work. These provide homogeneous lighting that emphasizes the architecture of this palace in the historical centre of Budapest, with an adequate distribution of illumination levels over the exterior walls. These levels fade off towards the roofing to avoid strong contrast between the walls and towers. Accent lighting highlights the cornice-edged spires. The wrought iron balconies that run along all four sides of the second floor of the palace are enriched by backlighting. This draws attention to the decorations against the light. The average illumination values of the façade are increased where the businesses and palace entrances are located. In particular, light-coloured awnings are used as diffusers for the three window lights of the Buddha Bar, allowing visibility from Kigyo Street. The pillars which rhythmically line the shop windows of the ground floor are illuminated by recessed light up devices. The main spire is lit up via projectors, placed on the street lamps located perpendicularly to Szabad Sajtò Street, in such as way as to completely avoid glare onto the surrounding buildings. The lighting intervention achieves the required illumination levels while continuing to respect the architecture and urban context, providing the right balance between non-invasive positioning of devices and restrained energy consumption.