Helsinki's historic market halls and market areas are a central part of the city's identity and cityscape. The City of Helsinki's Facilities Services commissioned a comprehensive lighting solution from Capital AV, with the aim of highlighting the architecture of these places and bringing warmth and liveliness to the urban space during the darkest time of winter.

The project covered several sites, such as the Old Market Hall, Hakaniemi Market Hall, Hietalahti Market Hall, Teurastamo Piippu, as well as the Market Square, Hakaniemi Market Square and Töölöntori Square .

Each site was designed with its own visual lighting concept that took into account the architecture, history and environment of the location. The goal of the lighting was not only to highlight the buildings, but also to create dynamic light in the spaces that enhances the atmosphere of the urban space.

The lighting was implemented with a total of 91 programmable fixtures , including both color wash fixtures and moving profile fixtures. Using gobo patterns, animation wheels and programmed movement, the building facades were transformed from static lighting into a living light surface.

The lighting of the old market hall was inspired by its maritime location. The wavy patterns and blue tones projected onto the facade created an image of the movement of the sea. The lighting of the Hakaniemi market hall, on the other hand, dealt with the history of the area and the changing cityscape of Helsinki, while the lighting of the Hietalahti market hall was implemented with a warmer and calmer color palette, emphasizing the atmosphere of the building. The lighting of the slaughterhouse chimney referred to the industrial history of the area. The lower part of the chimney was programmed with warm flame-like tones, which changed to colder winter tones as you went higher.

In addition to architectural lighting, over two kilometers of warm-toned festive lights were installed in the market areas, which created soft ambient light in the space and increased the comfort of the areas after dark.

Since the lighting was in use for almost two months , special attention was paid to the durability and maintainability of the equipment in the design. The lighting was programmed to follow the rhythm of daylight and separate lighting scenarios were created for, among other things, Independence Day and Christmas .