Ten award winners representing architectural lighting design projects from nine countries—the most diverse group of projects in recent memory—comprise the winners of the 30th Annual International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) International Lighting Design Awards.

Of the ten projects recognized, one entry earned a Special Citation, six earned Awards of Merit and three earned Awards of Excellence.

Accepting the Radiance Award for Excellence in Lighting Design was Gerd Pfarré of Pfarré Lighting Design for the Hafencity-University Subway Station in Hamburg, Germany. It’s a beautiful project and worthy of this prestigious recognition.

Suspended high above the HafenCity-University U4 subway platform are 12 “shipping containers” designed to the exact dimensions of those used in the HafenCity district’s former life as a global shipping center. Instead of tangible goods, these containers designed by pfarré lighting design contain light.

“There are so many elements I love about this project,” one IALD International Lighting Design Awards judge praised of the project. “Art as functional light, elegant programming, seamless integration and expression of transportation.”

HafenCity Hamburg is a large-scale rebuilding project that aims to convert the city’s free port district into offices, hotels, shops, official buildings and residential space. With decreased economic importance of free ports in the European Union, the Hamburg free port was reduced in size in 2003, allowing 2.2km2 of space to be rezoned as a new section of the city center in 2007.

In order to connect the new HafenCity planning project with Hamburg’s already-established public transportation system, construction began on the U4 metro line addition to the Hamburg U-Bahn. Running in parallel to the U2 from Billstedt to Jungfernstieg, the U4 then branches off toward the city’s new development project and the U4’s current terminus at HafenCity-University Station.

The design of Hamburg’s Hafencity-University station was inspired by the iridescent colors sunlight creates on brick façades in the HafenCity development project over the course of a day, as well as the steel ship hulls filled with ocean freight containers you could find in the port in its heyday. Each “container” developed for the HafenCity-University station weighs 6 tons and incorporates 260 RGB-LEDs.

Preset scenes can be used for day and night, when a train is approaching, or simply to create a visual sensation while waiting. The scenes can be static or dynamic, depending on the needs of the moment.

“This project teaches a lesson in how to use light to make a space functional, safe, fun and just plain awesome,” another judge commented on the project.

Clad with 6500m2 of treated steel sheets, the station’s walls and ceiling become enormous reflective surfaces on which the light from the shipping containers splay. The smooth color reflections create an effective and imposing contrast to the evenly distributed warm white T5 light integrated into each container’s bottom portion to illuminate the 200m platform.

“A light sculpture is […] so unexpected at a railway station,” another judge commented. “It is overwhelming and magical.”

After five years of construction, the U4 and its HafenCity-University stop began servicing the area in November 2012. The addition to Hamburg’s public transportation system was an immediate benefit to the 9,000 employees and 2,000 residents of HafenCity. When the project is completed, up to 35,000 people are expected to use the line every day.

See all of this year’s winners here.