The Canalejas Center in Madrid and the Victoria Chica Fortress in Melilla Win a LIT 2021 Award

The winners of the 2021 international LIT Lighting Design Awards have been announced. Among the award winners are the lighting projects for the new Centro Canalejas in Madrid and the Victoria Chica fort in Melilla. Spanish company García Requejo also won two awards for the HALO and FLY lamps.

The new Canalejas Center in Madrid, whose lighting was designed by Anoche Iluminación Arquitectónica, won the prize in the “Exterior Architectural Illumination” category. Located in downtown Madrid, the space has undergone a complete renovation; only the ten historic facades have been maintained, and the interiors of all the seven buildings have been completely reconstructed, creating a single building. The unification of the buildings has been achieved by using integral lighting that covers each of the facades. Small luminaires and custom-made shielding elements were selected for this project, and light levels were taken into account with a view to reducing energy consumption and light pollution. Uniformly illuminated from a distance, as you approach the building the details are seductive.

Melilla’s Victoria Chica Fort, a project by lighting studio and consulting agency DCI Lighting Design, won an award in the “Heritage Lighting” section. The sinuous movement of light over the textures of this building transports you to another era, guiding visitors on a visual and “magical” tour through each of the rooms of this fortress.  Another Spanish lighting design studio artec3 won an award for the Krook bookstore lighting project in the Belgian city of Ghent.

In terms of products, the Germiled brand HALO lamp by García Requejo was the winner in the “Healthcare Lighting” category, thanks to its threefold function of decorating, illuminating and purifying the ambient air using a UVC disinfection system. This purification system works by sucking the air in through one end of the tube and drawing it up to a filter formed by UVC light where any bacteria and fungi that may be present are eliminated. Once disinfected, the purified air comes out of the other end of the tube. The FLY lamp, meanwhile, won a prize in the “Pendant Lighting” category due to a design inspired by nature and the act of flying. These two lamps have also just won two new awards in January this year at the IDA Awards 2021 with  the bronze award, FLY in Designer Lighting category and HALO in Special Purpose Lighting category.

Garcia Requejo has been offering an extensive catalog of custom lighting fixtures and furniture for luxury hotels and large-scale projects for nearly 60 years. In 2020, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the company created the Germiled brand in order to make a contribution to the creation of germicidal lamps to eradicate viruses, bacteria, and other germs.

The LIT Awards were launched in 2017, with the aim of recognizing the creativity and innovation of designers and lighting companies, and the application of their ideas in projects worldwide. The jury, formed by designers, lighting companies, interior designers and architects, assesses both the artistic and scientifically innovative aspects, as well as the design elements of each lamp and the selected projects. In addition to the trophy and a copy of the internationally distributed annual LIT Lighting and Design Catalog, the winner is featured in a newsletter that goes out to 100,000 lighting and design professionals and potential clients all around the world, and receives coverage on the award website throughout the year.