Wieland Electric has supplied gesis GST and RST connectors to facilitate fast cabling of lighting at the new Library of Birmingham.
Opened in September 2013, the Library of Birmingham is one of the largest public libraries in the world and has replaced Birmingham Central Library. The building comprises a spacious entrance and foyer with mezzanine, lower ground level with indoor terraces, four further public levels and two outdoor garden terraces. There is also a ‘golden box’ of secure archive storage occupying two levels, provision for staff offices and service plant on a further two levels and at the very top of the building a rotunda feature housing the Shakespeare Memorial Room.
Designed to achieve a BREEAM Excellent rating, the library will play an important role in helping Birmingham City Council reduce carbon emissions by 60% before 2026. Its environmentally friendly features include low energy lighting and the Wieland structured wiring solution contributes to the overall sustainability of the lighting system. As well as making use of offsite, energy efficient fabrication techniques, reducing the embedded carbon of the project, structured wiring technologies also reduce the amount of site waste.
The 6-pole gesis GST connectors have been used to connect cable between lighting control modules and some 9,000 light fittings spread across 12 storeys. The gesis IP68 RST units have been used to connect external façade lighting.
For all of the connectors, the gesis plug and play functionality ensures that everything fits perfectly and only requires connectors to be plugged in onsite. Mechanical coding enables clear separation of different applications and the connector colour identifies the connections that belong together, so that mismating is virtually eliminated.
All of the connectors were pre-assembled and tested before leaving the factory so that installation time at the Library of Birmingham was greatly reduced.