The Arkhangelsk skyscraper

In the heart of Arkhangelsk’s Arctic winter—when the nights are long and the cold envelops the city—a slender modern tower pierces the dark sky with its luminous presence. It is the Building of Design Organizations, affectionately called “la vysotka” (the “tower” or skyscraper of Arkhangelsk) by the locals, a skyscraper that has dominated the urban skyline for decades as a symbol of the city. Today, thanks to a bold architectural lighting project, this iconic building shines once again, transforming the polar nights into a spectacle of light and renewing the dialogue between architecture and the urban landscape.

A Soviet symbol between history and urban architecture

Located in the central Lenin Square, the Building of Design Organizations was constructed between 1978 and 1983 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of Arkhangelsk.
With its 24 floors and height of approximately 85 meters, it remains the tallest building in the city and the entire Arkhangelsk region. Designed by a team of Soviet architects (M. P. Bubnov, V. M. Kibirev, G. F. Kuznecov, I. V. Semejkin, and others) who were awarded first prize by the Union of Architects of the USSR at the time, this skyscraper has redefined the city’s urban skyline since its inauguration. Its slender silhouette unifies the architectural ensemble of the central square, giving the Arkhangelsk skyline an unmistakable expressive feature and contributing to the artistic character of the city.

Originally, the building was intended to house various design institutes and state technical offices, functions from which its official name derives. During the Soviet period, it housed industrial design organizations and offices for the management of special facilities, while after the 1990s, the “vysotka” was converted into a private office building and welcomed radio antennas and local broadcasting studios on its rooftops.

Over time, the skyscraper has entered the collective imagination of Arkhangelsk residents, earning curious nicknames such as “the pencil” or “the candle.” due to the tapered shape of its tower. Back in 2010, multicolored decorative lights were installed on the top and antenna, in a first attempt to enhance the nighttime appearance of what many consider to be an architectural symbol of the city.

New light for the “vysotka” in the polar night

In recent years, Arkhangelsk has embarked on a major program to modernize its public lighting systems, converting old high-pressure sodium (HPS) lamps to new high-efficiency LED solutions. In this context, in 2020, the municipality commissioned Spacecannon to develop a tailor-made lighting system to breathe new life into its iconic skyscraper, illuminating it entirely from base to top. The goal was clear: to transform the vysotka into an urban beacon during the long winter nights, enhancing its architecture without altering its understated elegance.

For this challenge, Spacecannon designed and built TOWER7, a special version of the TOWER architectural projector—the first LED searchlight in its category—capable of illuminating the 24 floors of the skyscraper with precision and efficiency. Each TOWER7 projector emits approximately \ of neutral white light (4000 K) concentrated in a narrow beam of just 2°. This light, focused “from the bottom up” and “from the top down,” adheres to the vertical planes of the building, outlining its architectural profile in the darkness without dispersing into the Arctic sky. The choice of neutral white light, rather than multicolored lighting, was motivated by the desire to emphasize the geometric purity of the tower, making it stand out like a candle of light in the snow-covered urban landscape.

Close-up view of the tower: powerful TOWER7 narrow-beam LED projectors are installed on the roof, capable of illuminating the entire vertical facade of the building.

From a technical point of view, the entire new lighting system is managed by state-of-the-art digital control: the projectors are connected via DMX protocol (with RDM functions for remote monitoring) and integrated into the Clever Light system. This allows for the programming and synchronization of customized lighting effects, adapting the lighting to different nighttime scenarios and city events. During the long polar night in the north, the vysotka can now come alive with discreet but evocative lighting shows, giving the citizens of Arkhangelsk a luminous landmark that is always under control: a modern beacon that sets the urban rhythm and elegantly breaks the winter darkness. Significantly, despite being a visually striking installation, the use of new LED technologies ensures low energy consumption and reliable operation even in harsh subarctic temperatures—a virtuous combination of aesthetics and functionality, perfectly in line with the principles of contemporary lighting design.

Yuri Medvedev: the vision behind the lighting project

Behind the luminous rebirth of the Arkhangelsk skyscraper is the signature of Yuri Medvedev, an acclaimed Russian lighting designer who oversaw the concept and supervision of the lighting project. Medvedev is co-founder and partner of the Illuminator light design center in Moscow, one of Russia’s leading studios specializing in architectural lighting.
In a career spanning almost twenty years, his work has ranged from large-scale urban lighting projects to the enhancement of high-profile historical and contemporary buildings. For example, he participated in the design of the scenic lighting of Moscow’s large ring roads (the Garden Ring and the Boulevard Ring) and the Kremlin complex, helping to redefine the nighttime face of the Russian capital with light. His studio has also designed iconic projects such as the evocative lighting of Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg and the skyscrapers of the Moscow City center, including the famous Federation Tower, whose illuminated peaks now shine for miles across the Moscow sky.

Yuri Medvedev’s approach to light is both rigorous and poetic. He conceives lighting not only as a technical issue, but as an emotional and humanistic component of urban architecture. In his projects, Medvedev favors quality lighting, carefully measured to enhance spaces and the well-being of the people who live in them, avoiding excesses and spectacle for its own sake. Significantly, he has often criticized the tendency to “flood” cities with overly intense and disorderly lights: in his view, excessive brightness generates “light noise” and negates the communicative effectiveness of light itself. In an interview, Medvedev pointed out that in cities such as Moscow, “it is now almost impossible to stand out in an environment already saturated with glare—to make a building stand out, we end up lighting it up even more, triggering a vicious circle.” The solution, according to him, lies in a paradigm shift: “it’s time to rediscover the benefits of darkness,” or rather, to know how to strategically turn off certain lights to let the city breathe and highlight what really matters. This human-centric philosophy is also evident in the Arkhangelsk project: the new lighting of the vysotka is not merely decorative, but a measured intervention that amplifies the architectural identity of the building while enriching the urban experience of citizens.

Light and architecture in harmony north of the Arctic Circle

The lighting renaissance of the Arkhangelsk skyscraper is a shining example of how light can reinvent architecture and its role in the cityscape. From an austere symbol of the Soviet era to a modern urban beacon, the building at 4 Lenin Square now combines past and future in a story of light. The project by Spacecannon, guided by the vision of Yuri Medvedev, has transformed the northernmost skyscraper in European Russia into a living element of the city at night—a luminous presence that guides, inspires, and metaphorically warms the local community.
This dialogue between lighting and architecture captures the essence of contemporary light design: not simply the application of technology, but a creative act that enhances the soul of places. Arkhangelsk, with its long nights and its rediscovered vysotka, is a shining example of this. Thanks to light, a building can transcend its materiality and become a landmark in the territory, a catalyst for emotions and an integral part of a city’s identity. And in the darkness of the Great North’s winter, that candle of light burning silently in the sky above Arkhangelsk is much more than a scenic installation: it is the symbol of a community looking ahead, illuminating its future.