The 2010 IALD International Lighting Design Awards ceremony was held on May 13, 2010 at Renaissance Las Vegas Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. The New Acropolis Museum in Athens has been chosen from 210 entries to be one of the eight projects to receive the Award of Excellence. It is the only project which has been awarded the Sustainability Award.

Arup's London and New York offices collaborated on the project. The lighting design of the museum manipulates daylight as a means of achieving energy efficiency and environmental responsibility. The design team has taken care to maintain the level of sensitivity required when illuminating antiquities and modern artwork.

The design team constituting Florence Lam, Vasiliki Malakasi, Matt Franks and Katie Davis of Arup Lighting received a brief to use daylight as the theme to add a fourth dimension to the ancient collection as well as the architecture at the museum. Optimum display lighting has been ensured for the museum’s prized artifacts along with re-creating a sense of the outdoor conditions in which its sculptures were originally viewed.

The architectural lighting at the museum is kept to the minimum and yet plays a complimentary role in navigating visitors through the interiors. The holistic design approach choreographs the play of light and shadow with both daylight and architectural light.

Arup Lighting is the architectural lighting division of global architectural design practice Arup.