National Library Belarus

In 2006, Minsk received a new architectural symbol a brand new building to house the National Library of Belarus. The twenty-three storey library is designed in the form of a rhombicuboctahedron (diamond) and symbolizes the enormous value of knowledge that mankind has stored in books. The building is covered by glass panels and during the day all 24 sides sparkle as a real diamond. Architects Victor Kramarenko and Michael Vinogradov, wanted to preserve and convey this vision at night. “In the evening, the sparkling effect vanishes. External flood type illumination of the building is not effective, since glass panels reflect light into space.” GVA Lighitng’s PixeLED fixture was the perfect solution. The system consists of 4646 PixeLEDs installed behind the glass all around the building, 1349 controllers, 54 splitters, one channel splitter, one converter and one personal computer. The entire network of dynamically addressed PixeLEDs is controlled through custom-designed software operating on the standard PC. The designer is able to create, modify and schedule custom lighting scenarios. During operation, all effects are displayed in real-time on the computer monitor.