A stylish update to the lighting along Jyväskylä’s lakeshore route

Rantaraitti is a popular and accessible lakeshore route around Lake Jyväs. It enables pedestrians, cyclists and other micromobility users to enjoy the lake’s sights and scenery. The total length of the route is just under 13 kilometres, but it can be split into shorter sections thanks to the Kuokkala Bridge. The route is heavily trafficked, as it runs alongside several residential areas, outdoor sports facilities, artworks, and the campuses of the University of Jyväskylä and Jamk University of Applied Sciences.

The tail of a firefox

It was time to update the lighting along the route, as the old poles had reached the end of their lifecycles. The revamp sought a sense of continuity with the tried-and-tested design and russet colour scheme of the original poles. The warm light from the luminaires further accentuates the rough brown of the shafts. The lighting poles follow the shoreline, and beautifully sketch the shape of the lake and track for people on the opposite shore. One piece of feedback said that the lights draw a beautiful organic line, reminiscent of a firefox’s tail.

Versatile lighting

Elisa Hillgen is a Lighting Designer who has been working on the lakeshore route revamp from the outset. She sketched out the dimensions of the new poles, did the illumination analysis, and selected suitable luminaires for the site.

In addition to luminaires, each pole was equipped with a spotlight that can be used to highlight surrounding features, such as trees. The colour of the spotlights can also be changed to suit either the season or the objects being illuminated. This has also made it possible to dispense with the ground lighting that had previously been located along the route and which was difficult to maintain in winter.

It was also Elisa’s idea to add effect lights to the shafts.

These light patterns were designed both to bring a sense of rhythm to the route and to act as a visual guide: as they are also visible laterally, they give people an idea of the path ahead.

With help from Tehomet’s Design Manager Sami Huuskonen, these patterns took on a water motif. A water themed ornament has been cut into every second pole, and is illuminated using a colourful acrylic sheet and LED strip located inside the shaft. The LED lights and acrylic sheets have been mounted on a sledge inside the shaft, so that installation and maintenance can be carried out without taking the pole down.

The beauty of controlled rust

The poles are made from COR-TEN®, a weatherproof steel that is highly resistant to environmental stress. Its natural reddish brown colour echoes the tried-and-tested colour scheme of the original poles. At best, COR-TEN® is a long-lasting, maintenance free solution for outdoor lighting.

In Jyväskylä, they are also learning how easy it is to sand away any bumps or traces of vandalism from the surface of weatherproof steel.  The sanded surface doesn’t need to be repainted or re-varnished, as it will regenerate itself over time in response to air humidity.

COR-TEN® has been used elsewhere in Jyväskylä, so it was also a logical choice in terms of consistency. COR-TEN® has been used in the distinctive poles at Lutakko Harbour and the signposts along the Rantaraitti lakeshore route.

The lighting poles are impressively robust in their dimensions, rising to a height of 4.5 metres with a rectangular profile measuring 330 x 230 mm. The poles were custom-made at Tehomet’s Kangasniemi factory to meet the requirements of this project. The first phase of the lighting update around Lake Jyväs will be completed in 2021–23, after which a total of 120 new stylish lighting poles will have been erected along the route.

Mikko Maunula, a Construction Engineer from the City of Jyväskylä, says that Tehomet made the poles a lot easier to erect by pre-installing their LED lighting elements at the factory.

Lighting Designer Elisa Hillgen is satisfied with the result:

The idea was to remain as faithful to the original lighting concept as possible. From a maintenance and lifecycle perspective, the most important thing was to upgrade the luminaires to LED technology and switch from wooden to COR-TEN® poles. But we were also able to liven up the route by adding light patterns to the shafts and illuminating the surrounding trees.

I think this was a successful project, and we’ve also received positive feedback from residents. The lakeshore route is important to many people, so these kinds of changes will be noticed. In Jyväskylä, people in general maybe have a more keen eye for environmental lighting and lighting fixtures. Here, we hold light and its potential in high esteem.

Luminaire models
Lining the route: Weef, OLV344 132-0649 27W, optics R65
Floodlight: Griven, Ruby MC AL5249 RGBW, optics ME 23°

Steel elements: Weatherproof COR-TEN® steel
Electrical design: Juhani Saari, Nodeon Finland Oy
Design of the poles’ steel structures: Matti Mikkonen and Joonas Pesonen, Destia

The following professionals involved in the project were interviewed for this article:

Mikko Maunula, Construction Engineer, City of Light, Jyväskylä
Elisa Hillgen, Lighting Designer, City of Light, Jyväskylä
Sami Huuskonen, Design Manager, Tehomet Ltd.