January 12, 2024

Tartu welcomes new lighting installation as part of the ENLIGHTENme project

The past year ended on a high for the ENLIGHTENme project. The third of three public lighting installations was completed just before Christmas 2023. Alongside the cities of Bologna, Italy and Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Tartu greatly welcomes the new lighting for its Annelinn neighbourhood.

At darkness, the new installation turns the Turu Bridge and the beach at the Anne Canal into new landmarks of the Estonian city.

New LED luminaires were installed in the handrails of the bridge to illuminate the bridge and new floodlights lighten up its pillar. New luminaires were also installed on the light traffic roads in the surrounding area.

The entire installation was co-designed together with the local community of Annelinn. With the project focus of investigating the effects of lighting on the health and wellbeing of older people at heart, researchers held in-depth workshops with citizens to gather insights into the reality of aging. Of particular interest were answers to questions such as:

How can lighting support active ageing?
How can lighting address specific issues of ageing such as visual impairment, fall-prevention, cognitive incapacities, social exclusion?
How can lighting support access to public space and active participation in civic life?

Argun Paragamyan, the designer of the new lighting, explained that the lighting on the Turu Bridge is provided by microLED modules installed in the handrail. "This solution ensures adequate and even lighting for both pedestrians and cyclists. At the same time, the LED lights are dynamic and allow for varying both the light density and the light temperature. New projectors have been installed to illuminate the bridge pillar, allowing the architecture of the pillar to be highlighted and displayed as a new landmark", explains the designer. With the ability to adjust luminance and temperature of the new luminaires, lighting can be programmed to better match the atmosphere of the location, and different scenarios can be set according to the seasons.

In the past, the City of Tartu emphasised energy efficiency when replacing luminaires. "Now we want to go a step further and study how people feel about different lighting solutions. As a result of the current project, we want to gain good practical knowledge on how to take into account the effects on people's health and wellbeing when planning and renovating urban lighting", says Raimond Tamm, Deputy Mayor of Tartu.

Over the course of 2024, the new luminaires will now be used to test and evaluate different lighting solutions for the best health and wellbeing effects. There are also plans to organise workshops and ask passers-by what they think about the different lighting set-ups in the ENLIGHTENme project area. The City of Tartu encourages people to share their feedback on the new lighting.