First there was the Night Tube; now another initiative is aiming to transform evenings in the UK capital. The Illuminated River is a large-scale design project, backed by the Mayor of London, intended to explore creative ways of lighting up the city's landmark bridges. The international competition was launched earlier this year and the six shortlisted entries will be showcased at a free exhibition at the Royal Festival Hall from 9 to 29 November, with the winner announced on 8 December.
The proposals represent the culmination of the work of 73 artists, architects, designers, planners and engineers from Asia, Europe, North and South America and the designs are similarly diverse. Reflecting London's status as a multicultural city, architectural practice Adjaye Associates' proposal, Blurring Bridges, assembles a team of international artists, each tasked with bringing alive one of the 17 bridges.
The other projects take direct inspiration from nature and the Thames itself, interpreting the river in different ways. Current, by Leo Villareal, the artist behind The Bay Lights installation on San Francisco's Bay Bridge, showcases an interactive display of abstract light and colour inspired by the currents, tides and the sky. These elements also provided the starting point for Synchronising the City, created by design studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Here, its entry references the "Magic Hour", when the sun has crossed the horizon and the night falls, at which point the bridges will gradually fill with light, culminating in the "Night Kiss", a beam directed into the sky.
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The ebb and flow of the river influenced AL_A's entry in a literal sense: at low tide, lighting highlights the underbellies of the bridges and shifts to their elevations at high tide. A similar process of revealing the bridges' architecture forms the basis of A River Ain't Too Much To Light by Les Eclairagistes Associes, which imagines a series of lampposts, each a faithful reproduction of lampposts around the world, planted in the waters that emerge and disappear with the river's tides. The final entry – Thames Nocturne by Sam Jacob Studio – uses live data from the Thames to choreograph its illuminations.
The Illuminated River Exhibition is at the Royal Festival Hall from 9 to 29 November; illuminatedriver.london
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