The city of Hanover had announced a competition for Ägidientorplatz; architects, as well as artists from both Germany and abroad, were invited to participate. In order to do justice to its position and significance, Ägidientorplatz was to receive increased formal emphasis within the urban fabric. Unfortunately, the majority of elements, such as plantings, lighting, paving, street alignments, etc., had already been decided upon and were not subject to revision. This left only the air space itself.
In collaboration with the artist Heinz Mack, we designed a sculpture to mark the square, occupying the space above without obstructing or crowding it. The result was the so-called Light Cloud, a spatial structure of braced steel beams, developed via a series of experiments involving numerous variants. The highly reflective beams were intended to reflect the vicinity, the light, the sky, subjecting the space to an alienation effect, rendering some elements invisible, while bringing unfamiliar ones into the field of vision via reflections. Depending too on weather conditions and on time of day, the appearance of the light configuration was to change constantly. Our contribution was awarded first prize. Unfortunately, due to financial restrictions the project was not realized.
