Taichung wants famed designer to create ‘gallery of light’ along creek

By Chang Chin-ya and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer





The Taichung City Government plans to hire internationally renowned lighting designer Chou Lian (周鍊) to build a “gallery of light” along a maple-lined stretch of Nantun Creek (南屯溪), a city official said.

The Taichung Construction Bureau has received complaints from the residents of Fongshu Borough (楓樹) that the maple trees — which the municipality had planted as a city landscaping project — were too gloomy at night, despite the extra lights the bureau installed last year, bureau Director Huang Yu-lin (黃玉霖) said.

After inspecting the area with Taichung City Councilor Ho Wen-hai (何文海) and Fongshu Warden Chen Po-Chung (陳伯仲), it was decided that purpose-designed lights would better serve the safety needs of pedestrians and city beautification, Huang said.

Maple trees lining both sides of Nantun Creek in Fongshu Borough in Taichung’s Nantun District are pictured on Thursday last week. Photo: Chang Ching-ya, Taipei Times

The bureau wants to use a variety of lights whose colors would change according to the season, with a special focus on complementing the red maple leaves in fall, he said.

However, the lights must blend in with the scenery, be functional and have no negative affect on the trees, he said.

The bureau hopes that the designer lights will increase the usable recreational space of the community, he said.

The designer lights will be installed along the creek between Yongshun Road and Rihfong Bridge (日楓橋) from September to November, he said.

Chou is known for his decades of work with the architectural lighting design firm Brandston Partnership, lighting at the Statue of Liberty, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, the Chimei Museum in Tainan.

He has also been asked to work on the Taichung World Flora Exposition.