Completed in 2024, the facade illumination project for the Mahesana ISKCON Temple in Gujarat addresses the challenges of lighting a complex, two-storey religious structure. Commissioned by the Trust, the scheme required an architectural lighting system capable of maintaining the building's structural hierarchy after dark while providing dynamic colour programmes for the temple's festival calendar.

The Architectural Challenge

The temple structure presents a long, two-storey elevation characterized by a deep arcade running along the ground level, topped by ornate upper facades and traditional roof shikharas. The depth of the ground-floor arcade created a substantial optical problem during night-time illumination.

Standard offset floodlighting directed solely from the ground or targeting the upper storey would have left the ground-floor arcade entirely in shadow. From a distance, this would cause the arcade to read as a continuous black band, visually severing the upper structure and shikharas from the foundation. The design required a multi-tiered approach to ensure structural continuity from plinth to finial.

Lighting Strategy and DMX Control

Bluesys Lighting Solution addressed this structural void by splitting the elevation into distinct, controllable zones. Rather than treating the facade as a single flat plane, the scheme treats the internal depth of the arcade and the exterior structural envelopes as complementary visual layers.

  • Arcade Illumination: Fixtures were placed within the colonnade to wash the arcade from within. This interior illumination silhouettes the columns while lighting each arch individually, eliminating the dark void beneath the main structure.
  • Upper Storey and Shikharas: The exterior surfaces of the upper storey and the towering roof shikharas were treated as isolated surfaces, receiving dedicated beam distribution to accentuate the carved details and spires.

Control was achieved by configuring the upper storey, the internal arcade arches, and the shikharas as independent DMX groups. This grouping architecture allows the Trust to programme bespoke dynamic colour scenes aligned with specific religious festivals, shifting from static monochrome presentations to coordinated multi-tiered sequences without spill or visual confusion.

Luminaires Specified

The installation utilised solid-state architectural luminaires manufactured by Bluesys Lighting Solution, engineered for long-term outdoor deployment:

  • RGB Linear Wall washer Light 50W: Configured with 50W output, IP67 ingress protection, and RGB/3-IN-1 colour mixing. These linear fittings were deployed to provide uniform vertical grazing along architectural surfaces and within the arcade vaulting.
  • RGB Flood Light 50W: Specified with 50W output, IP67 ingress protection, and RGB/3-IN-1 colour mixing. These luminaires were utilised for controlled structural projection targeting the upper spires and shikharas.

The IP67 rating ensures resilience against environmental exposure, dust ingress, and water penetration across changing seasonal conditions in Gujarat.

Project Results

By lighting the interior arcade independently from the exterior upper levels, the project successfully counteracts the deep architectural recess. At night, the building reads as a unified, coherent mass rather than an isolated, illuminated roof sitting over a dark foundation. The DMX control integration provides the Trust with the operational flexibility to trigger distinct colour scenes across individual architectural zones for every event throughout the year.

Fixtures used on this project