Cynthia Ortiz knew for years before Mexico City’s Acuario Inbursa (Inbursa Aquarium) was even built that she wanted to design its lighting. “As enthusiastic as I am about being a lighting designer, I used to talk about it with friends, most of them architects,” she says, adding that one of those friends told her about the project when plans were still uncertain. “Some years later, I received a call—he had recommended me to the project—and I knew they had tried some other person to do the lighting design, but it wasn’t quite what they were looking for.”
The aquarium, owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, features 230 species of sea life within 11,500sq-ft. of space and is one of the largest aquariums in the world. Officially opened in June, the building has four floors, three of them underground. Touring the venue starts at the lowest level, designed to simulate the ocean floor, complete with a pirate ship and sharks. Visitors ascend through a coral reef and a manta ray pool to the beach and rainforest levels, culminating on the ground floor at one of the venue’s main attractions, the Penguinarium.
Ortiz worked alongside project manager and architect Edgar Delgado to capture the aquatic atmosphere and conceptualize lighting effects for each space, also collaborating with Elation Professional’s Mexican partner, ADIMSA, vendor for the lighting system.
Ortiz specified Elation LED fixtures for the various spaces, programming via Elation Compu Show software. “The flexibility to create scenes and the friendly interface of the software allowed us to conceptualize the spaces and atmospheres and get the best out of the lighting fixtures,” she says, adding that one challenge was working with the team of electricians at the aquarium, since they had never installed and wired a project using DMX.
For the lowest and darkest floor, Ortiz says, “In this space, we recreated the bottom of the sea, where there is not much light, with deep blue colors and some accents to enhance some spaces or tanks.” She used IP-67 rated 3W Elation ELAR 2A04B recessed fixtures to color the space. “This fixture was installed as a signal light for a staircase on the route so that visitors could see it,” Ortiz explains. The pirate ship is lit with Elation ELED Fresnel 150s and EPAR TRIs, as well as American DJ Mega TRI Bar LEDs and ADJ Flat PAR QA5X units.
Moving up to the next level, visitors find a coral reef, jellyfish, various other species, and the manta ray pool. “Here, we use some small accents with variations of blue and similar tones,” says Ortiz. She used ADJ Flat PAR QA5Xs and ADJ Micro Wash fixtures specifically for the reef and the manta ray pool, adding Elation Arena PARs, ELED Fresnel 150s, and EPAR TRI units for the pool and its surroundings. “At the manta ray area, a darker area, we wanted to highlight the texture of the floor, and since this is a big open area, the Arena PAR was the best solution to achieve that.”
Continuing the ascension through the venue, visitors arrive at the beach/rainforest level, home to the aquarium’s saltwater species. “We needed more light in the beach and colors to make the impression of getting to the surface of the sea, but right ahead of this area is the rainforest where the light is only visible through the vegetation on the ceiling,” says Ortiz. “For the beach, we wanted a uniform light, with bright walls and scene illuminations from noon to sunset. Another thing to consider in this area was the species of marine animal. There could not be red tones in the lighting so the sunset scene ended up being very subtle.” Here she added more Arena PARs, along with Mega QPAR 38s, Flat PAR QA5Xs, and Micro Wash fixtures, while the rainforest is illuminated by ELED Fresnel 150s. “We sought to create a ‘real’ atmosphere with light passing right through the trees and vegetation, and the ELED Fresnels are ideal for this,” she says.
Finally, the top level, actually the ground level, is divided into two main areas: the gift shop and the Penguinarium. Ortiz designed lighting for the Penguinarium, where she says she “wanted to recreate deep blue colors but also wanted the capacity to change to some more white tones.” To project colored light and highlight the texture of the rocks, Ortiz placed EPAR TRI LED PARs behind the pond, using ADJ Mega Bar 60s “to create an Arctic, Aurora Borealis effect, all in blue,” she says. “Here, RGB has been used mostly for its versatility because the main color is the blue, but there is an option for the scene to change during the day, mixing up some of the red and green to get deeper or lighter tones. It also works very well to recreate the kind of light the penguins need,” Ortiz says, adding that natural light is also used in the space.
Ortiz says she’d really like to design more aquariums, and she continues to work on lighting for clubs and bars. ADIMSA’s Alfredo Carranza and Jorge Ramirez worked with Ortiz on the project.
The October issue of Live Design is available for free download for iPad or iPhone from the Apple App Store, and for Android tablet or smartphone from Google Play.