St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Church

Year:
2019
Location:
Kyiv, Ukraine
Patrons:
MacPaw, Ring Ukraine, SD Capital.
Photo Credits:
Andriy Bezuglov

St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic church of St. Nicholas in Kyiv is a piece of architectural heritage that is over a century old and has been preserved in the city center. Until recently, this beautiful monument of architecture was just a dark unlit silhouette at night, so there was an urgent need for the night illumination.

The project has a social basis. Its implementation was made possible thanks to several patron companies, so the lighting of the church became a gift to the citizens.

The task was complicated by the "inviolability" of the historical facade: it was impossible to place additional structures on it, so we had to find a non-standard solution. As a result, we illuminate it from the opposite side of the street from neighboring buildings at a distance of about 100 meters. The special equipment has been developed for this goal, very powerful and with extremely narrow two-degree optics. Also, to achieve the needed shape of light spots, we used the super-thin nano-lenses that transform round spots of light into ellipses.

Typically, such architecture objects are illuminated with a sliding floodlight that creates characteristic shadows. Lighting it in a different way, we calculated light spots of different diameters, covering the facade fragmentarily and thus giving additional prominence to the facade.

The lighting equipment and control system allow for creating various lighting scenarios. The daily scenario is a plain warm-white light. To support public holidays or specific events, it allows for creating programs in any color scheme according to a specific occasion. In addition to changing shades, scenarios can be either static or dynamic. Now, for example, in connection with the coronavirus situation, the facade of the church has been highlighted in the colors of the Italian flag to express support to Italy from Ukraine.