Light & Engineering Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 33-39, 2015 Svetotekhnika No. 5, 2014, pp. 60-64 THE LIGHT IMAGE OF HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS Valery V. Aurov, Mariya D. Bausheva, and Nikolai I. Shchepetkov1 The Moscow Architectural Institute (State Academy), Moscow E-mail: n_shchepetkov@inbox.ru ABSTRACT The light image of city architectural objects observed in daylight dramatically changes at night with artifi cial illumi nation. <...> The formation of an expressive light image is the creative task of a light designer, and it is especially important in the case of highrise buildings and constructions, which usually serve the dominant structures in lit views and perspectives of a night city. <...> The principal methods and ways of a light-and-colour composition of facades are considered with different interpretations of the set task using the example of one of Moscow skyscrapers. <...> A short review of the global experience of architectural illumination of high-rise buildings is given. <...> Keywords: light image, high-rise building, sky1 scraper, architectural illumination, light silhouette, lighting parameters Creating images is one of the greatest demonstrations and properties of perceiving works of art, including architectural objects. <...> These effects are characterised by their strong fi rst impression, and remain in the memory 1 This publication is carried out within the scientifi c and research work of the Basic part of the State task of Minobrnauka of the Russian Federation № 655 “Highrise buildings. <...> E.V. Ulyanova (the Moscow Architectural Institute) took part in the researches and in material preparation for the article. 33 fi nding generalised features, and sometimes also a symbolical sense through engaging the imagination, experience, associations and so on. <...> This information is “transmitted” by architectural forms into the natural environment under conditions of natural or artifi cial illumination. <...> Therefore, in urban architectural compositions, high-rise buildings usually play a dominant role. <...> According to the theory of a Spanish sociologist M. Kastels, highrise buildings and constructions designate architectural space as “space of a place”. <...> Probably because of the fact that “vertical is the main axis of a human body” [1], a high-rise construction symbolically expresses the greatness of a person using architectural and artistic images on a grand scale. <...> It is obvious in daytime, when the vertical of such a construction <...>