The Cedars of God is the natural heritage of Lebanon. This divine forest symbolizes the soul and pride of the Lebanese people, so much that we put it on our National Flag. In 1998 the Cedars forest was added to UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific & Cultural Organization) as a World Heritage Site. The millennial trees of this magnificent forest display their full majesty during the day, but at night they are lost in their dark surroundings. Hilights had the honor and privilege to be awarded the colossal task of creating a lighting design that would bring this living national monument to life even at nighttime, and Lumiere Group was appointed as the lighting supplier.
The lighting design approach was to light the forest in a soft illumination, giving enough intensity to see the forest and admire it at night without turning it into a flashy park attraction. Two main peripheries of the forest were delicately lit to be able to perceive the space and distinguish the forest area location, highlighting it for all its surrounding areas to see. Select “star” trees were lit within the forest to enrich visitors’ experience. Only a small amount of the trees were lit to keep as much of the forest as possible in darkness, which only served to underline the effect. One can enjoy a pleasant night walk in the forest as the pathways are now lit with the intention of mimicking the natural effects of moonlight, with light hidden within the tree branches lighting downwards, creating a soft shadowed pattern of the trees on the floor.
The lighting of the trees is all directed sideways from adjacent trees and not from top to bottom, in order to preserve our day sky and avoid the trespassing of light into our starry night sky. The lighting and its installation was all handled with as much care as possible for the trees and animals of the forest. The trees themselves create a barrier layer from their cut branches to avoid having any external particles coming into the tree and further damaging it. These cut branches were used as support on which to install the fixtures with short screws that are immersed with natural pine glue, which serves as a further protective barrier for these fragile trees.
Specific high-end LED light projectors from Platek were selected with the appropriate color spectrum and bandwidth to accommodate the requirements for the wellbeing of the forest and the environment. The entire setup boasts low energy consumption. Even the color finish of the projector was tailored to have it look identical to that of the cedar trunk so that it can visually merge with the tree, minimizing the presence of the lighting fixtures during the day. In short, every care was taken to make sure the natural beauty of the Cedars was not disturbed…only enhanced.