Jaakko Niemelä and Helena Hietanen: Kartastoja

Computer programmed led-lights and perforated aluminium plates on two facades of a car park.

Kartastoja (translation: Atlases) is a public artwork covering two facades of a multi-story car park P-Pergamentti in Jyväskylä.

During the day, the facades of the building appear as one-coloured surfaces which are broken by the perforated graphic pattern. In the dark, the walls become see-through, and the pattern is combined with the programmed lights in an intriguing way. The building reveals its inner structure, and its appearance becomes airier. Thus, it is not dark, it indirectly illuminates its surroundings.

Light fixtures places on the ceilings of the multi-story car park appear through the perforated façade as long lines running depth wise. The vertical and horizontal lines of light together with the perforated pattern form a visually multidimensional entity, to which the headlights of cars seen through the façade as moving light phenomena bring a surprising addition.

Jaakko Niemelä and Helena Hietanen

Jaakko Niemelä, Architecture of Light / Aalto University's School of Art and Design, b. 1959, lives in Helsinki, Finland; Helena Hietanen, Aalto University's School of Art and Design, b. 1963, lives in Rauma, Finland

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Information

Artwork finished in: 2018

Which kind of light sources and what other materials and equipment are used? Perforated aluminium plates and computer programmed led-lights.

Does the artwork use sound? No sound.

Seen before at: Public artwork in P-Pergamentti parking house in Jyväskylä (Paperitehtaankatu 3, Jyväskylä).