Hear the Lights Sing MUZA Kawasaki

The project name "Muza" is a coined word made from "music" and "za," a Japanese word for a place where people gather. Kawasaki City, manifesting its policy to build a "town of music," called for a lighting plan that would enhance the historical landscape with new, artistic freshness. The project sites include an office tower, a shopping mall and a concert hall, which is going to be the home of The Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. One of features of our project is use of LED (Light-Emitting Diode) fixtures controlled by computers. The pedestrian deck is brightly illuminated with those LEDs, while people pass by, feel, or sometimes rest on sculptures installed along the street. The lights twinkle in the floor and usually show programmed transition from blue to rosy pink; however, once they catch a noise -- a girl call her mother, or a car honk its horn -- the process is cancelled and sudden change of color amuses visitors. Sound sensors installed in the fixtures invoke this action. Music and sound are found to be a good tool to make an amusing lighting space.