Lighting of the Nizhne-Volzhskaya Embankment: the longest and most picturesque street in Nizhny Novgorod

Walking along the Nizhne-Volga embankment: the longest and most picturesque street, the historic center of Nizhny Novgorod, a favorite among citizens and tourists, consisting of numerous city architectural monuments. Specialists from the lighting company SvetExpert will talk about the work being done to implement a unified architectural and artistic illumination concept for one of the most important and significant streets in Nizhny Novgorod.

Let us recall that in August 2021, one of Russia’s oldest cities, Nizhny Novgorod, will celebrate its anniversary. The capital of the Volga region turns 800 years old. The city is undergoing extensive work on landscaping, reconstruction, and upgrading its appearance. Such a significant event and celebration on the federal level promises Nizhny Novgorod a complete transformation and metamorphosis. Architectural and artistic illumination is one of the main directions in the development of the urban environment and ensuring the festive appearance of the evening city view. Svet Expert specialists have developed a lighting master plan for the entire city of Nizhny Novgorod, which includes all the sights and cultural and historical sites, landscape spaces of parks and squares, pedestrian and water bridge structures, as well as canvases of several central city streets. The most notable and unconventional project of Svet Expert is the architectural lighting project for the beautiful Nizhne-Volzhskaya embankment.

“The first place tourists visit is the Nizhne-Volzhskaya Embankment,” says the general director of Svet Expert. "In other words, it’s the face, the center point, the calling card, the city-forming appearance, and the first impression of the city. In addition to its location and distinctive length, the embankment is beautiful because it offers views of the most important and significant sights of Nizhny Novgorod. The coastal line of the city is formed by the stone facades of ancient historical buildings, every second of which is a cultural heritage site of our country. Our task was to combine a completely discordant and unrelated objects with a single light concept: ancient estates decorated with Empire-style stucco, medieval castles with stone towers, classical buildings of profitable houses, and ensembles of Gothic buildings of the last century. In an attempt to unite something that is absolutely contradictory, we came to the conclusion that the strength and beauty of our idea lies in emphasizing the disparity of objects, highlighting the distinctive elements of different architectural styles and eras. Several thousand lights aimed at cornices, balustrades, columns and consoles of buildings on the embankment will highlight the features of each facade, and a single white light color temperature will synchronize all buildings, uniting them into a homogeneous harmonious light canvas.

“Multi-stage design with the passage of expertise and obtaining approval from relevant authorities is a necessary stage in working with cultural heritage objects,” says the chief project engineer of Svet Expert. "The Nizhne-Volzhskaya Embankment has several dozen objects that require a historical and cultural expertise and the development of a project for adapting the restoration and modification of an architectural monument. Our concept implies the installation of lighting equipment in the body of the embankment building facade, which requires the creation of a section to ensure the preservation of the cultural heritage object and special measures and procedures for work on buildings of this category by a licensed employee. Research work at each facility of Nizhne-Volzhskaya began with searching in archives and studying the historical and cultural significance card of the object. We studied the construction dates, architects and builders of buildings, the original idea and functionality, owners of objects and the history that each rustic stone and brick keeps. Our involvement and detailed study at the design stage gave rise to our special reverent attitude towards the Volga embankment in us. Such careful handling of architectural monuments is observed at all stages, including construction and installation work. We will soon complete the implementation of the project for facade lighting of the Nizhne-Volzhskaya Embankment, and in the place where the Oka flows into the Volga, a mirror-like surface will reflect the concept we conceived, our idea, desire, and thought to give a new luminous appearance to ancient buildings rooted in the history of Nizhny Novgorod."

Reference

Svet Expert is an international lighting company providing a full range of services in the market of architectural and artistic lighting. Since its foundation in 2004, the company has implemented more than 500 projects in 9 countries. Today, Svet Expert is one of the leaders in the market of architectural and artistic lighting in Russia and Europe. Among the company’s customers are city administrations, industrial holdings, large developers, management companies, shopping and business centers, state and private organizations. Svet Expert has all the licenses and certificates necessary for work, including a license to carry out activities for the preservation of cultural heritage sites of the peoples of the Russian Federation.