△ Iconic Ice and Snow City Landmark
Xinxiang, formerly known as Muye, lies across the river from Zhengzhou and is a key city in China’s Central Plains region. Here, the Rongchuang Cultural and Tourism Group has developed its 11th cultural and tourism city. The architecture boldly features nine scattered cubes arranged into three clusters. These massive building blocks rest upon a still water landscape, evoking the imagery of giant ice blocks.
The lighting design, crafted by PROL Light Stone, continues the concept of “exploring the hidden value of light,” shaping an urban art landmark that captures the icy and snowy essence of the Central Plains region.
Inspired by Frozen
PROL Light Stone masterfully manipulates light and shadow, using creative lighting interventions to break away from the rigid ice-block architectural style. During the day, the design projects a cool, bold image. At night, it magically transforms the massive “ice blocks” into a romantic, dreamlike fairy tale world, showcasing the architecture’s diverse forms and endless possibilities.
△ Design inspiration: Frozen © Image sourced from the internet
△ Lighting design captures the dreamy color theme of Frozen
The lighting design starts from the relationship between the site and the building’s visual impact, aiming to redefine the concepts of “ice” and “snow.” By illuminating the massive “ice blocks” at night, the design breathes life into the architecture.
The lighting intensity is set to be 3 to 5 times brighter than the surrounding environment, increasing progressively from bottom to top. Moving beyond the traditional cold white tones of ice and snow, the lights spread in richer colors, evoking the romance, delicacy, and joy of a winter wonderland inspired by Frozen.
Stacked ice cubes
△ Lighting Design Manuscript © PROL Light Stone
△ Architectural Lighting Analysis © PROL Light Stone
Light and transparent large ice cubes
Urban Architecture: Distance and Intimacy
The building’s exterior employs digital printed glass technology. By day, white ice blocks are stacked in a cool, high-end architectural style, arranged in a staggered layout. Between the large cubes, semi-transparent ice-crystal glass facades filter light and views, intermittently revealing and concealing the interior.
At night, the lighting transforms the cold daytime ice blocks into a dreamy fairy tale world of ice and snow, creating a visual experience that surprises and invites exploration.
△ Architectural day view, cool and high-end
The large ice cube that “lights up”
△ Romantic and dreamy night view of architecture
△ Large ice cubes “cool” and “warm”
To preserve the facade’s integrity and transparency, the designer meticulously integrates lighting fixtures with the building’s curtain wall maintenance tracks. Internal lighting highlights the frost-colored glaze on the digital printed glass, restoring the layered illumination of each “ice cube” and achieving a harmonious balance between what is visible and hidden, inside and outside.
△ Facade lighting
△ Blue and white polar ice and snow world
△ Dreamy Frozen
Taking into account the effect of nighttime light transmission on the facade, the designer deconstructed intricate frost condensation patterns and visual focal points from multiple angles. After numerous trials and precise design, the lighting effect on the large ice blocks was achieved with exquisite craftsmanship—uniform, smooth, and perfectly balanced inside and out.
△ Lighting Design Analysis | Visible Position of Internal Entity Facade
△ Balanced lighting inside and outside
The designer’s bold and creative approach extends to the lighting colors. Alongside the natural blue and white hues of ice and snow, the palette incorporates blue-purple shades drawn from the rainbow refractions of ice flowers, aligning with the Frozen theme. These dreamy, sweet colors flow gently across the cubes, adapting to different times of day and enhancing the joyful atmosphere essential for the cultural tourism city’s commercial appeal.
△ Weekdays | All white lighting
△ Weekdays | All blue lighting
△ Weekend | Blue & Purple transition
During the lighting calibration phase, many children playing in the square stopped and asked, “Is this Princess Elsa’s castle?” This moment made the designer realize that beyond the immediate visual appeal, the subtle power of light evokes emotions and joy that transcend age and culture.
Princess Elsa’s Ice and Snow Castle
Through the eyes of a child, setting aside rational design language, the dazzling ice cubes resemble the magical ice and snow castle conjured by Princess Elsa in fairy tales. This imagery also reflects adults’ yearning for nature, joy, and fantasy.
△ Dreamy Ice and Snow World
As clouds break over the mountains and ice melts into shining water, the monumental ice blocks stand quietly on the northern bank of the Yellow River. They have become a new artistic landmark for the city, bringing the beauty of freezing cold to the Central Plains region. PROL Light Stone’s magic with light and shadow awakens the vitality and dreams embedded within the ice blocks, transforming the daytime scene into a romantic, fairy-tale realm that stirs the imagination.
△ Lighting consultant’s logo displayed on site ground
Project Information
Project Name: Zhongyuan Rongchuang Cultural and Tourism City
Location: Xinxiang, Henan
Year: 2021
Client: Sunac China
Land Area: 28,200 square meters
Lighting Design: PROL Light Stone | www.prol.co
Architectural Design: Zone of Utopia / Qiang ZOU + Mathieu Forest architect
Interior Design: WUZ Design
Photography Team: TOPIA Visual Studio
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