2018 Best of Design Awards winners for Lighting — Outdoor

Spectra was a seven-story temporary installation designed by NEWSUBSTANCE and mounted at the 2018 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Visitors were able to walk up a spiral ramp to view the fairgrounds from different heights and through a full spectrum of colored windows. During the day, the 31 Perspex panels reflected and refracted sunlight. At dusk, an LED cove light scheme gently fluctuated through different color temperatures. As night fell, roof-mounted spotlights extended the tower’s profile into the sky. Spectra was one of six site-specific installations commissioned for this year’s festival. Responding to the surrounding Colorado Desert, the cylindrical project explored the relationship between light and landscape.