10 Buildings That Use LED Lighting

The skylines of our cities are changing. Not only are buildings getting taller, they’re also becoming brighter and more colourful thanks to low energy LED lights. We look at 10 buildings from around the world that light up the night sky using LEDs.

1 – The Agbar Tower. This 38 storey skyscraper in Barcelona, Spain opened in June 2005, and has 30,000 offices – 3,210 technical facilities, 8,132 services including an auditorium and a 9,132 square foot area for parking.

Somewhere amongst all that, there’s room for 4,500 LED devices, capable of displaying more than 16 million colours!

2 – The Empire State Building. One of America’s most well known landmarks opened in 1931, with its 102 storeys giving it a height of 1,454 feet. In 2010, a $120m project began to make the building more eco-friendly – and this involved installing 1,200 LED lights.

The LED system saves up to 75% on energy compared to the old lighting system, and is capable of emitting 16 million different colours.

3 – Canton Tower. China’s Canton Tower opened in September 2010, and stands over the Guangzhou skyline at a colossal 1,954feet. The tower is also installed with 7,000 LED lights, making sure you definitely can’t miss it.

4 – Miami Tower. At $1.5m just for the light installation alone, it wasn’t cheap. But Miami is sure to be full of colour for years to come with 47 storeys of bright LED illumination.

5 – Luminous at Darling Square. Opened in May 2012 in Sydney’s refurbished Darling Quarter, Luminous is a permanent interactive LED light installation, designed to synchronise to music and let visitors play with the lights.

It covers 557 windows, with the entire digital facade spanning over 150m.

6 – National Library of Belarus. The original library of Belarus was founded in 1922, and boasts the third largest collection of books in Russian. The new building was completed in January 2006, and stands 236 feet high.

What we’re interested in though, is the exterior – which is covered in over 4,500 LED lights. It can display over 20 different light effects and emit over 65,000 colours.

At 1,485m², it’s also the country’s largest means of advertising.

7 – Yas Viceroy Abu Dhabi Hotel. Built across the Yas Marina F1 circuit in time for the inaugural 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, it features two 12 storey hotel towers, sporting 499 rooms.

What really sets it apart though, are the 5,389 pivoting LED lights that provide a unique spectacle for race fans watching at the track, or on TV around the world.

8 – Flame Towers. Standing at 620 feet high, the Flame Towers in Baku, Azerbaijan cost $350m to build, but are also covered in over 10,000 LED lights. This video of them in action highlights the different effects that can be achieved with this system.

9 – GreenPix Zero Energy Wall. Situated in China, this is essentially one huge TV screen, covered in 2,292 LED lights. It’s equivalent to a 24,000 square foot TV – imagine playing your Playstation on that!

10 – Rogier Tower. Formerly known as the Dexia Tower, the building was renamed after the Dexia Bank collapsed during the global financial crisis in the late 2000’s. Standing at 449ft tall, it has plenty of room for some cool lighting effects though.

It’s covered in 6,000 windows, of which 4,200 of them are equipped with an average of 12 RGB LED light bulbs. This allows the building to emit abstract patterns, or on other occasions custom displays are shown for holidays and other events.

Do you know of any other buildings that make great use of LED lights? Let us know in the comments, or drop us a message on our Facebook page. You can tweet us too, @WLEDLightsUK.