30|REPORTAJE PHASES FROM BIRTH TO THE END OF MONUMENTAL ARCHITECTURAL LIGHTING PROJECT Feelings and emotions: Spirituality, mystery, serenity, grandeur. Seeking to convey emotions and feelings is the starting point of the design. Get at night an absolutely co- lossal, magnificent image of the temples, while a serene environment that invites to meditation, reflection, and to stay inside of each temple participating in the spirituality that even today emanates of every stone used in its construction , each carved relief, each story and each color still alive in their columns and walls. Lighting concepts: The magical couple of light and shadow as a tool for transmitting sensations. It involves the decision about what elements light and the way to do it, resolving issues as how empha- size the volumes and characteristics of each architectural element of colossal dimensions. Some different lighting concepts were combined, as dramatic up light, baths of Reflected light, dramatic wash light, and accent light. We wished to enlighten each architectural element without contaminating the adjacent elements, and maintaining an appropriate and dramatic balance of light and shadow. Respect and integration: Enhanced architecture and symbolism, without creating artifacts, soberly. The concepts and lighting effects are achieved with the utmost respect, with high integration, and without any damage any antique architectural element. As a result, identifying viable locations for the lighting pro- jectors was an essential target, respecting the antique items that should not be altered. During the day, under the sunlight, the lighting installation should go unnoticed. 1 - Integration: Technical solutions must take into account the actual dimensional and functional characteristics of each architectural element (columns, statues, reliefs) to achieve the result, and together with other issues such as their antiquity, the type of pavement (sometimes antique, sometimes new, sometimes gravel...), the paths of visitors (which can move freely through the temples), and the effects of lighting required by the lighting design (dramatic effects), led to the conclusion that the lighting equipment could not be installed on any ancient architectural element : All lighting fixtures must be installed on the ground (surface mounted). To integrate as much as possible with the monument this type of installation resulted in: Selection of lighting equipment with small dimensions, so comparatively to the huge dimensions of the architecture of the monuments (temples and tombs) will result as small as possible. Development of a new innovative idea: design artistic covers for each type of lighting equipment to cover the them, hiding them and integrating them with the temple. These covers should imitate the temple stone in color and texture, so that the projectors would look like stone blocks. At the same time, the material used to manufacture this custom made solution should withstand the extreme environmental conditions of the site, and be lightweight for easy handling during installation and maintenance, and for transportation by ship from Spain. As each temple has built with a different type of stone or they have different color, Spanish artists moved to Egypt to take actual samples of color and texture of the stones in order to make the molds, and after that the manufacture of each cover the final hand finishing was performed by artists. Wiring was under ground whenever possible, i.e. in all cases of restored pavement made with new stone (rose and placed again), and in cases where the pavement was gravel and sand. Still, the installation could not be more than 25 cm deep by archaeological reasons. When the way of the cables was by ancient pharaoh stone inevitably, the joints between them were used to introduce a single cable from the lower section possible. 2 - Strength Extreme weather conditions of the country must have special lighting equipment, with very high strength, able to withstand very high temperatures (around 50 °) and a high amount of ambient dust, even sandstorms. The rains, though rare, when they occur are heavy, so they also had to endure this situation. The artistic covers should withstand direct sunlight without damage the finish color; should bear the high temperature of around 50 o, dust and sand of the environment without degrading the material or texture; withstand impacts to prevent break. With these premises, the material selected for manufacturing them was a glass fiber reinforced mass-colored polyester. Specific templates for each type of projector was performed, taking into account the geometry of the projector and the texture of the real stone of the temple or tomb where it would installed. The finish color of each of the covers was made by hand, changing according to the temple or tomb where’d installed too. The fixations methods for the projectors were designed depending on the individual problem and the type of pavement: new restoration stone, ancient Pharaoh stone, sand. These fixation methods should be sufficiently robust to withstand impacts while preserving the position of the projector without moving or breaking. Different metal structures for floor fixing depending of the type of projector were designed. When fixing the floor was not possible, bases made of carved stone, with enough weight to prevent movement or set with restoration cement, were used.