Elsewhere on this website this month, you can read about the Dubai Shopping Festival, an annual event that attracts a large number of tourists. Dubai has established itself as a top resort in the Middle East, with 27 five-star hotels now operating. Among the most popular is the Fairmont, a 35-story tower located on Sheikh Zayed Road. In order to make the building stand out in this densely built area, the client opted for an exterior lighting treatment using 150 Martin Exterior 600 outdoor color changers, which are focused on the building's four concave facades and rooftop turrets.
The Exterior 600s were placed vertically on custom-made wall brackets on the ninth and 32nd floors of the hotel. The building facade is made up of alternating columns of glass and granite and is covered with light from top to bottom on all four sides. In addition, there are four glass turrets rising from the top of the building, which are lit from inside and out by Exterior 600s. These rooftop units employ a wide-angle lens with frost feature as opposed to the facade units, which are equipped with narrow, 18º lenses.
Nouran Trading, the chief lighting equipment supplier for the project, brought in DHA Lighting Design Services to coordinate a proposal for the facade lighting (Martin's Middle East Agent, Amac of Lebanon, commissioned the deal). In addition to the Exterior 600s, fiber-optic lighting, recessed down units, and floodlights are used, with everything under the control of a Martin ProScenium, a visual DMX512 lighting control package located on the ninth floor of the hotel.
The client chose color changers for reasons of flexibility--the units allows for the possibility of differing color schemes for holidays, festivals, and other occasions. And thanks to the Exterior units, the hotel is visible from all over the city and beyond.