Cancun’s La Isla Shopping Village

Located in Nichupté lagoon in one of the busiest tourist destinations in the world, Cancun, in the beautiful Mexican Caribbean, La Isla shopping mall and entertainment center was built to resemble a Caribbean village. The mall’s unique lighting concept and façade decoration invites visitors to walk around its streets, bridges and wharves while enjoying the wonderful Caribbean weather.

The 48,000 sq. meter commercial complex is home to popular brand stores, top quality restaurants and unique entertainment attractions such as an aquarium and climbing wall, all of which share the mall’s open spaces. More than 3,000 conventional lighting details, including light poles and reflectors embedded in the floor, form lighting for these areas. Nevertheless, it is the more spectacular automated lighting, added to enhance the myriad architectural elements, that gives the area a more exceptional and attractive feel.

Special canvas cys similar to sailcloth fly above the various streets that make up the shopping village. This provided lighting designers Jeff Johnson and David Alexander Katz with the perfect projection surfaces. Some 28 Martin MAC 500 profile spot fixtures were installed to project textures, images and logos over color changing backgrounds provided by 20 Exterior 600 dedicated outdoor wash lights. At night, the center’s plazas become a gathering point for visitors as the magnetism of the multicolored light shows attracts crowds of shoppers.

The center’s main façade was also an important focal point of illumination. Because the mall’s large front is visible by the huge flow of drivers and pedestrians passing by on Kukulcan Avenue, one of Cancun’s main roads, the facade was illuminated with 16 Exterior 600s. The illumination creates a touch of curiosity in each passerby that often leads to an obligatory visit.

This unique tourist site boasts another main attraction, an interactive fountain that allows visitors to walk among its powerful water jets, making it a delight for children. The 10-meter diameter fountain throws jets up to 15 meters high. But it is at night that the fountain really draws a crowd as 4 Exterior 600’s use water as the perfect canvas to paint over the jets with an almost unlimited variety of colors.

Operation of the automated Martin lighting system, as well as the conventional architectural fixtures is coordinated through a Martin ProScenium architectural controller,. The ProScenium coordinates more than 200 scenes a day and operates 365 days a year. As the light show is triggered in the early evening hours, the control system reduces the conventional lighting level thus producing a more dramatic atmosphere for the automated effects to take over. Each lighting circuit is connected to the more than 500 dimmers and direct circuits distributed in dimmer racks. David Alexander Katz designed the control solution while the lighting contractor for the La Isla Shopping Village project was Martin distributor Teletec of Mexico.