LOCATION and TIMING: as a famous highlight on the shores of the Gulf of Tonkin, the Poem Mount has been shrouded in darkness for a very long time. It was not until 2017 that the leaders of Ha Long City were determined to give the Mount a coat of light, worthy of the mountain’s beauty. After two years of work, lighting designer Kiet Le Cong Tuan has completed the task, turning Poem Mount into a shimmering landscape reflecting onto shores of Ha Long Bay.
HISTORICAL NOTES: for many centuries, this mountain was used as a signaling fire point on the northeast coast, until 1468 when King Le Thanh Tong led his army across. The king had a poem carved on the cliff. Since then, it has been named Poem Mount. Two hundred and sixty-one years later, in 1729, Lord Trinh Cuong had another poem carved , replying to that of King Le Thanh Tong, on the cliff. Just like that, the mountain cliffs received a total of six ancient poems from famous figures.
PROJECT: the project’s major challenge was the extremely varied, jagged and uneven geomorphology of the mountain, which composed of karstic limestone. This unique environment has many caves, oddly shaped rock formations , extensive vegetation, and a wide range of natural colors from off-white gray, to green, dark green, and jet-black.
The lighting not only ensures beauty and reveals the “spirit” of the mountain in its most natural way but also ensures its ecosystem is not disturbed. The lighting designer had to carefully study the locations of birds of prey and monkeys living in the mountains, as well as the places covered by vegetation, to use lighting settings such us spectrum, intensity, beam angle and duration of exposure.
STUDIO DUE USED PRODUCTS: Studio Due participated in the project with 213 sets of LED headlights (151 sets of MP/240B, 15 sets of MP/120B, 37 sets of WR80, 10 sets of WL60 Ultra Narrow) using monochromatic light with very high CRI, with color temperature in the range 3000-5600°K, controlled by its DMX system. Some lighting fixtures have been applied specialized filters to adjust the beam angle, in order to achieve the best coverage effect on the illuminated subject. The final result is that 80% of the mountain’s area - almost 190,000 sqm/236,308 sqm, 4 kms in circumference, the highest peak reaching approximately 200mts -has been illuminated in the most artistic and natural way possible. More importantly, the illumination system is turned on for about 5-6 hours every night throughout the year, turning Poem Mount into a permanent lighting work, creating a unique highlight on the shores of Ha Long Bay. That is how Italian technology has contributed to beautify Ha Long bay, one of the new Seven Wonders of the world.