Vadodara – The City Of Culture
Vadodara is one of four cities in the state with a population of over 1 million. It is also known as the Sayaji Nagri (Sayaji’s City after its famous Maratha ruler, Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III) or Sanskari Nagri (The City of Culture, a reference to its status as the Cultural Capital of Gujarat). Vadodara or Baroda, formerly the capital city of the Gaekwar State, is situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri, a river whose name derived from the great saint, Rishi Vishwamitra.
Vadodara poses a rich cultural heritage as well as enthralling traditions and customs and is also known as Sanskari Nagri. Vadodara is a major center for education, industrialisation, and commercialisation. Apart from these factors, Vadodara also has exceptional sites to visit for tourists. Palaces, Forts, Gardens, Parks, Religious sites, Lakes and many more attracts entice the visitors to the exotic city; the historical monuments of Vadodara are important attractions for the travelers during their journey to the place.
City is known for some of the most popular structures, interiors and architectures, where some sites actually blow the minds of the excursionists. One of the main attractions is Raopura Tower, which stands in the most crowded area, and which is one of the busiest places for shopping in the city.
Raopura Tower
Raopura Tower, so-called Maharani Chimnabai tower, is located in Vadodara (Baroda) City, boasts a clock fitted on top, and also has design of Chhatris above the clock. The Tower is designed in Indo-Saracenic style and was erected in Year 1896 from funds contributed by the citizens of Baroda in the memory of Maharani Chimnabai (1864-1885), the first wife of the Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III.
The tower that was inaugurated by last Nawab of Baroda, Mir Kamaluddin Hussain Khan, happened to be the Central Place of the Old Fort. The clock that is visible to commuters from all the four directions, used to play music every 15 minutes.
Due to today’s busy life, this monument loses its eye-catching effect, and required maintenance to get a fresh look and attraction again. On its 120th anniversary, city authority planned to illuminate the unnoticed historical monument and create eye-catching effect in the most crowded place of the city.
The Lighting Challenges
The main constraints for lighting designer were lack of technical details of the monument (Length, Dimension, Plan, Sketches etc.). So, all the necessary details were gathered manually by entire team including Lighting Designer, Archeology Department & people from City authority.
The Lighting Solution
All the measurements & details of each and every carved stones have been taken very precisely to prepare lighting concept with DiaLux Evo. By considering history of tower associated with Maratha architecture, lighting designer used keyword silver charm with golden touch to revive it. After detailed study of the red-brick structure, 2700K and 4000K colour temperature have been selected to highlight red bricks as well as clock respectively.
The reason behind choosing different colour temperature was to give unique gold and silver effect to the monument. The stone intricate was precisely highlighted with light and shadow technique. Wall washers of different wattages with 2700K used to achieve warm golden touch while strip flex led with 4000K used to convert space into silver charm.
The desired lighting goal is achieved by unparalleled blend of 2700K and 4000K temp with 80 CRI that allows true colour of the bricks and the intricacy of masonry to be revealed.
Finally, the Lighting installation has been completed under supervision of lighting designer, archeological department as well as city authority to avoid any damage and to ensure minimum drilling on the monument.
After successful installation of lighting fixtures, the final result was unbelievable, the forgotten monument got its charm back. It’s a tremendous journey from canvas to reality expressing the glory of the monument.
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Project Site: Raopura Tower, Vadodara
Lighting Project by Mitesh Kumar Parekh
From: Lux Plus Design Pvt. Ltd.
Client: Vadodara Municipal Corporation
