Top electrical contractors have helped create the 11 outstanding lighting schemes that have been honoured in this year’s Lighting Design Awards.
These included PEL Interiors, MCE Electrical, SI Electrical, Budd Electrical, Boldfort and EIC.
Projects were as diverse as they were distinguished, with a sublime cathedral scheme sharing the laurels with a guerilla lighting movement and a Japanese restaurant. The latter was just one of three awards swept up by Isometrix Lighting + Design, whose senior designer Gerardo Olvera was also recognised as Lighting Designer of the Year.
Olvera’s award-winning schemes attracted consummate praise from the judges. His scheme for a Belgravia penthouse, winner of the Residential Lighting category, was ‘perfect’ and his lighting of Japanese restaurant Sake No Hana, which took the Leisure Lighting award, was ‘faultless’, said the judging panel.
The Richard Desmond Children’s Eye Centre at London’s Moorfields Eye Hospital took the award for Exterior Lighting for Lightscape Projects, sponsored by Philips. The colour-change scheme – installed by Light Projects Group – used as its canvas the asymmetrically arranged louvres which protect against solar gain on the massive glazed facade.
The Retail Lighting award – sponsored by Hacel Lighting – went to the Marks and Spencer Press Centre at its Marble Arch building, a scheme designed by LAPD Consultants and installed by PEL Interiors.
The scheme for the Sake No Hana Japanese restaurant, winner of the Lutron-sponsored Lighting for Leisure category, was largely about meeting the exacting challenges of architect Kengo Kuma. The solution – by Isometrix Lighting + Design – provides a perfect marriage between the detailed lighting of individual elements with a coherent overall vision.
Winner of the Public Buildings award – sponsored by Trilux – was The John Murray Archive at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh.
ISG won the Wila-sponsored Workplace Lighting award with an imaginative and sustainable scheme for its own new headquarters in London. In the office spaces, a T5 direct/indirect scheme has been supplemented with a blue-light wash to perimeter columns and artificial skylights which gradually shift colour temperature throughout the day.
Taking the iGuzzini-sponsored Transport category was the Queen Alexandra Bridge in Sunderland. In a scheme which emphasises the viewpoint of the pedestrian and motorist rather than a more distant perspective (there are few vantage points) the tightly controlled lighting creates a sense of depth and brings the box-like structure to life.
Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff took the Heritage Lighting award for Sutton Vane Associates while BDP Lighting’s unusual Guerilla Lighting events, one in London, the other in Manchester, won this year’s Special Projects award, which is sponsored by iLight.
The Residential Lighting award, sponsored by Concord, went to a penthouse in Chester Square in London’s Belgravia. In a technically exacting scheme, the accent lighting for the numerous artworks also acts as the ambient lighting, while vertical surfaces are washed with concealed xenon to frame and model the space. It was designed by Isometrix Lighting + Design and the electrical contractor was Boldfort.
The Wakiya at Gramercy Park Hotel in New York won the International category, sponsored by Oldham Lighting – for what the judges described as ‘a scheme of great precision’.
A new category this year, Low Carbon, sponsored by Etap, saw its first winner in the Arup Campus Phase II, with lighting designed by Arup and installed by electrical contractor EIC. An extension to an award-winning sustainable development, the emphasis was on daylight penetration into the deep-plan office floors. Judges were also impressed by the integration of artificial and natural light to create ‘a stimulating and pleasant working environment’.
In the innovation section, the winner of the Interior Luminaires category was the Tempura LED spotlight from Zumtobel Lighting. The iSign from iGuzzini won the External Luminaires award and the Light Sources and Control Gear category was also taken by iGuzzini with its W_Saving, a power-saving flux controller that can be retrofitted into existing street lighting columns. Easily installed, the device means that without replacing the whole fitting, the lighting can be dimmed and the wattage reduced when full light output is not needed.
