De Zwerm Underpass

The permanent, interactive light installation of "De Zwerm" underpass on the Montgomery Lane in Eindhoven, Holland, demonstrates that a dynamic and connected urban infrastructure's illumination can become a major new landmark.

Designer Frank Tjepkema created an abstract flock of birds that changes color and speed in reaction to traffic flow and temperature. "The continuously responsive movements of Zwerm make it a living organism integrated in the urban landscape," Frank Tjepkema explains.

The purpose was to produce the illusion that the birds move in, under, out, and over the tunnel. The total "flock" consists of 728 birds, each one illuminated with 2 LED lights in iColor Flex LMX gen2 (now specified with Flex Compact gen3, RGB) nodes: 1456 individually controlled LEDs.

The software is developed to react to traffic frequency and temperature variations; the former influences light lines' speed and amount and the latter the colors. At night or on a cold day the dominant colors will be more greens and blues, whereas during an extremely warm day or season, the dominant colors will be in the red, orange and yellow spectrum.