GuddeVol – lighting objects for a public space in Luxembourg

Five large round lighting objects are hovering in a seemingly random way over the square place between the disused blast furnaces. These objects are the first ‘street lights’ designed by Ingo Maurer. They have been installed on the Place des Hauts-Fourneaux, a
rather intimate public space, with a width of 40 metres.
GuddeVol is a disk with an opening in the middle (diametre 420 cm, opening 115 cm),
kept above the ground at a slight angle by three slender, mat black poles with a length of
approximately 5 metres. On the bottom side, several curved openings of various lengths
are equipped with recessed LEDs. Around each pole, a circle of LED uplights is fixed.
They light up the surface of the disk itself, turning the slices into bright white circles that
contrast the dark structures of the furnaces above them. The GuddeVol were carefully
designed to provide lighting for the ground while avoiding unwanted upwards scattering
of light. The slanting position adds dynamics, and vaguely reminds of UFOs. Ingo Maurer
named his design GuddeVol, luxembourgish for ‚Have a good flight‘.
On the evening of the inauguration, the objects are immediately embraced by the locals
from Esch-sur-Alzette, a town on the border to France, where Luxembourg’s biggest
ironworks were situated until the late 1990s. People flock in the circular puddles of light,
chatting, looking up to enjoy the light installation for the blast furnaces, inaugurated simultaneously with a special light set up and a concert. Children use the bright area between
the three legs as stage for spontaneous dances, obviously inspired by the unusual atmosphere.
Further GuddeVol will be installed this year just round the corner, along and under a central building of the university, the “Maison de Savoire” designed by Baumschlager Eberle.
These lighting objects are situated in the public space and are accessible around the clock.
Esch-sur-Alzette is only 20 minutes away from the Centre of Luxembourg and close to
the French border and Metz as its next bigger city in a 60 km distance.