At Al Zahia Uptown in Sharjah, Luxtron supplied the lighting control systems for the building facades, end to end. The photos show what that control is looking after: warm lines of light tracing balcony edges and rooflines, glowing lattice screens at street level and trees lit from below, across a whole street of residential blocks.

It is one of the residential projects on our controls showcase, and a good example of why facade lighting in a community is a controls job as much as a lighting one.

What we supplied

Our scope was the end-to-end supply of the lighting control systems for the building facades. The facade luminaires are visible in every photo, but the part we were responsible for is what switches and schedules them.

Why a facade needs a control system

A single building's facade lights can run off a time switch. A community is different. There are many buildings, several facade elements on each one, and a look that only works when they all behave together. A few reasons control earns its place:

  • Consistency. When the lights come on at dusk, they should come on together, block after block. One building lagging by twenty minutes is the first thing residents notice.
  • Schedules that follow the sun. Sunset in the UAE moves through the year. A schedule tied to sunrise and sunset keeps the facade on when it is dark and off when it is not, without anyone adjusting timers.
  • Late-night levels. Facade lighting that suits early evening can be too much at 2 am for the people living behind it. Control makes it possible to step down or switch off parts of the scheme later in the night.
  • Energy and lamp life. Lights that only run when they are useful use less energy and last longer.
Street at Al Zahia Uptown at night with residential blocks, warm linear light along balconies and lit lattice screens at ground level
The same lighting language running along the whole street.

Reading the scheme in the photos

The facade lighting picks out the architecture rather than flooding it. Linear light runs under balcony slabs and along the roof edges, drawing the floor lines of each block. At ground level, lattice screens and tall panels glow warm amber, and trees in planters are lit from below. The overall effect is calm and residential, more like a lantern than a billboard.

Ground floor frontage at Al Zahia Uptown with warm lit timber lattice panels and an uplit olive tree
Lit screens and an uplit tree at street level.

That kind of scheme depends on every element being on at the right time and at the right level. Half a roofline dark or one block on a different schedule breaks the picture immediately.

Tall residential block at night with amber light lines under each balcony and palm trees in front
Balcony lines that only work when every floor is on together.

Next step

Developing a community or a group of buildings with facade lighting? Talk to us before the facade package is fixed, so the controls are planned with it. See our lighting controls, from routers such as the Helvar 920 to wall panels, or get in touch.