Traditional British stationery store Smythson, first opened in 1887 offering luxurious stationery goods. Now, over 100 years later, Smythson continues to specialise in bespoke stationery, leather goods and fashion products. The flagship store in Bond Street dedicates a room for notable users of Smythson products, which showcases key items from Smythson’s product history.
Lighting Designer, Illumination Works, specified Precision Lighting’s Evo X16 LED fixtures to illuminate the front window display. The fittings were focused on key pieces within the display to highlight and draw attention. The luminaires were mounted on Precision’s Basis Track system; custom bent to compliment the curves of the window display. The modern, yet sophisticated and elegant, look of the store was reflected in the brushed aluminium finish of the Evo fixtures, allowing the luminaires to blend seamlessly into the surrounding architecture.
For the re-creation of the Model Room of the Sir John Soane Museum, independent lighting designer Charles Marsden-Smedley was entrusted with lighting models that demonstrate the acclaimed architect’s collection of architectural models, and delivered a scheme that features luminaires from Precision’s award-winning Pico Zoom family.
The renovation of the Model Room was carried out under the wider ‘Opening Up The Soane’ (OUTS) initiative; the project set out to restore original elements of the Museum, and sought to make more areas within the building accessible to the public. OUTS also provided new facilities, and special attention throughout the OUTS phases was on improving the visitor experience. For those interested in finding out more about the OUTS project there is currently an exhibition about the project, open to the public in the Foyle Space of the Soane Museum, and designed by Charles Marsden-Smedley.
The Model Room was originally Soane’s wife Eliza’s bedroom, that was transformed by the architect with a dramatic custom-built central stand displaying highlights from Soane’s collection of 121 models, in 1834. Following the architect’s death in 1837, the Model Room was converted into the Museum Curator’s private living quarters. As part of OUTS, Julian Harrap Architects were tasked with restoring the Model Room to its original condition, and offer the opportunity for visitors to view the collection in the same surroundings as Soane would have exhibited them to his guests. Arlington Conservation were responsible for the restoration of the spectacular model stand to its original dimensions and appearance, and worked alongside Dieter Coellen in reconstructing some of Soane’s original models.
Charles Marsden-Smedley was tasked with lighting the re-created private apartments on the second floor, including the spectacle of the Model Room’s central stand, which displays a number of impressive models, including a cork reproduction of the ruins of Pompeii.
Marsden-Smedley’s lighting scheme for the Model Room focused on drawing attention to each of the unique architectural models featured on the display stand. Marsden-Smedley opted for Pico Zoom luminaires from Precision as part of the scenario.
The award-winning Pico Zoom features variable beam technology, allowing the light distribution angle to be smoothly adjusted from 12° through to 30°, without the need for tools, making it an ideal luminaire for on-site focusing. The Pico Zoom allowed Marsden-Smedley to finely tailor each luminaire’s distribution so that the models were lit to perfection, and capturing their unique features and fine-details.
The end-result is a fantastic collection of architectural models that are illuminated to perfection. The restored Model Room not only showcases Soane’s legacy as one of the finest architects of the Regency period, but also demonstrates the pivotal role that model making continues to hold in the architectural profession.
The Sir John Soane’s Museum former Director Abraham Thomas says of the transformation, “It is wonderful to see Sonae’s private apartments and Model room reopen, so that they can be enjoyed by future visitors as he intended.”
Precision Lighting’s Pico 1 Surface LED spotlights are being used to illuminate displays at ‘Collider’, the new, immersive exhibition at London’s Science Museum. It gives a behind-the-scenes look at the CERN particle physics laboratory in Geneva, home of the Large Hadron Collider. The exhibition blends theatre, video and sound art to tell the story of ‘the world’s greatest experiment’. It runs until May 2014 when it will go on international tour, complete with lighting.
Visitors explore areas including facsimiles of CERN’s Control Room and a huge underground detector cavern, encountering ‘virtual’ scientists and engineers, snooping around a researcher’s workbench, and examining genuine artefacts from CERN. The Science Museum developed the £1 million exhibition with an award-winning creative team including architect Nissen Richards Studio, playwright Michael Wynne and video artist Finn Ross. The lighting design by London-based Studio ZNA plays a crucial part in creating the atmosphere of the huge underground complex says Alison Boyle, the Science Museum’s curator of modern physics.
In an attempt to recreate the atmosphere of the LHC tunnel itself, the lighting has been carefully designed to provide a high contrast environment. ‘It was an interesting challenge to create something atmospheric, a world that was unfamiliar to our visitors, while having to adhere to the safety, legibility and aesthetic requirements that you have in a museum. It is a careful balance,’ says Boyle. ‘The light levels are low to create the right atmosphere but allow visitors to see all the content properly.’
A total of 81 Precision Pico spotlights have been used in display cases. Machined from aerospace-grade 6063-T6 aluminium, they combine a high-tech aesthetic with accurate focusing, accomplished on-site without the need for tools.
All the lighting will travel with the exhibition when it goes on tour from May 2014 until the end of 2016. ‘Everything is designed to be packed up and taken somewhere else,’ says Boyle. ‘It’s really important to replicate the show as closely as we can. We are lucky that we are underground in the Science Museum but that might not be the case everywhere else and the lighting has to do the job of convincing you that you are 175m below ground.’ Hughes points out that ‘the surface-mounted Pico will be easy to de-install and then plug-and-play at the next venue. Re-installing will be straightforward.’
Bicycle Tour is a new dynamic artwork installation created by exhibition designer Emily Pugh for the refurbished entrance hall of the Science Museum. Emily Pugh worked together with lighting designer Zerlina Hughes of Studio ZNA, and an in-house project team headed by Kristin Hibbs.
With some 2.9 million visitors every year, the Science Museum is the UK’s most popular destination dedicated to science, technology and design. When visitors enter the museum they are immediately drawn to the large curving chandelier displaying a small portion of the museum’s vast collection of bicycles. Precision Lighting’s Oculus 11 spotlights have been incorporated into the installation helping to provide discreet, glare-free lighting. Varied beam widths of 14º and 30º were used; each where needed to best illuminate the subject area.
It was important that the luminaires blended into the artwork; adding to it, yet subtly. Custom monopoints were designed to allow for a seamless connection between the Oculus fittings and the installation frame. The invisible fixings allow the luminaires to blend into the artwork and become one with it; allowing them to subtly highlight interesting features and textures of the bicycle designs. Careful consideration took place at the design stage to ensure the fittings were quick and simple to install and easy to wire; facilitating a quick installation time.
The idea behind the installation was to create the impression of a velodrome having flown up into the sky, using the layering of the models, colours and patterns to reveal contrasts in detail of the numerous individual designs. Bikes of all vintages from the museum’s archives are represented in this piece. The curvature of the installation adds to the sense of speed and freedom.
Mindseye were invited by Matthew Lloyd Architects to provide a lighting scheme for the Royal Society of Arts, a Grade 1 listed building which was originally designed by Robert and John Adam in 1774.
Matthew Lloyd’s vision was to produce a state of the art facility whilst remaining true to the original features, which prohibited the use of any recessed fittings. At the same time, Mindseye needed to meet the RSA’s requirements for the many different uses of the main function rooms, in particular the spectacular Great Room, which was required to house state of the art technology to relay events via real time links with Fellowes and audiences worldwide. Finding a way to meet the lighting and flexibility requirements for its many uses: presentations, seminars, weddings, exhibitions etc, whilst also keeping fittings as discreet as possible, was very challenging. Crucially, all four walls are clad in 18th century oil paintings which need to be kept below 150 lux to prevent degradation. The ground floor ‘lounges’ were kept very informal by using warm bespoke ceramic wall lights by Boatswain and minimal Precision Lighting Evo spotlights to illuminate artwork.
Bespoke chandeliers for the reception staircase and Benjamin Franklin room were chosen through a competition run by the RSA. These pendants were designed and produced by Troika and not only produce a beautiful light effect but also meet the requirements set out by Mindseye to allow them to provide functional light levels for the spaces they are in.
The Great Room utilises uplighting from the cornice and accent lighting from Precision Lighting LED spots, which were chosen for their minimal aesthetics. These were discreetly located on custom brackets mounted on the cornice and within slots in the existing ceiling lantern. RGB lighting was also introduced at low level to wash indirectly from the 8 bespoke speaker units around the room. The result is an extremely flexible lighting scheme allowing a full range of events to take place.
Preserving the fabric of a heritage building and creating efficient lighting that is also discreet is always a challenge but in the setting of the Royal Academy’s General Assembly Room, it was of paramount importance. The chamber is where the Royal Academy’s governing body convened and not only are its walls lined with precious art but the room itself has great architectural importance. So, a multi-circuit version of Precision Lighting’s Basis Track has been carefully concealed from view, installed above the chamber’s cornice to light both the ceiling and the artworks. The track was given a custom finish of RAL9002 grey-white to match the walls precisely. Other rooms equipped with Precision Lighting fittings at the RA include the Tennant Gallery, the Council Room and the Reynolds Room.
Precision Lighting LED Pico Zoom mini-spotlights helped showcase the work of new British jewellery talent at the Rock Vault event as part of London Fashion Week spring/summer 2015.
The latest edition of Rock Vault, organised by the British Fashion Council took place at Somerset House in London from September 12-16, 2014. Creative production company Blonstein designed the temporary exhibition, putting the jewellery on plinths crowned by classic, domed birdcages and using Precision Lighting’s Pico spotlights to light them precisely, with glitter but not glare.
‘When we were developing the creative for the Rock Vault show case at London Fashion Week we were thinking about lighting from the very beginning,’ said Blonstein’s Brian Jones. ‘We really wanted to avoid the glass box on a stand aesthetic that is the easy solution for a temporary exhibition but the birdcages idea was only going to work if the jewellery looked perfect. ‘
Blonstein lit each cage from within with three surface-mounted Pico Zoom spotlights. Jeweller Emma Madden of Shimmell and Madden described the effect as ‘brilliantly bright, beautiful lighting, perfect for jewellery display.’
‘The room is naturally bright and the designers use a wide range of materials; some of which need a lot of light to ‘pop’ from the display,’ said Jones. ‘A chance to work with the team at Precision Lighting meant we could use the very high power-to-size ratio of their Pico range without compromising the display with lots of ugly fittings. The Zoom function in such a small package is a real innovation.’
Pico Zoom, designed by Precision Lighting’s Peter McClelland, was recently described as ‘nothing short of a mini-marvel’ by a leading industry publication and has received critical acclaim since launching. Despite weighing in at just 60g, the highly engineered but diminutive spotlights have focusing and locking features usually only found on much bigger fixtures. A combination of adjustable optics and exceptionally smooth movement makes it possible to position and focus these discreet spotlights with pinpoint accuracy.
The Zoom optic can be adjusted to give beam widths of between 12° and 30°, while Pico’s rotation and tilt mechanisms provide a smooth, constant movement for superior adjustability. Like all Precision Lighting luminaires, Pico can be locked in pan and tilt so that it stays perfectly focused.
‘All the designers and our clients at the British Fashion Council, commented on how great the lighting was this season and we look forward to any opportunity to collaborate with the team at Precision Lighting in the future,’ said Jones.
The Pico range is frequently used to light jewellery including the precious Cheapside Hoard at the Museum of London, and by jewellers Mappin and Webb for their showrooms. ‘The Pico is great for various applications including picture gallery lighting,’ said Precision Lighting Sales Director Spencer Baxter. ‘However, the Pico Zoom’s tool-less adjustable beam technology makes it particularly suited to use within display cabinets; either surface-mounted or as the Pico S1 Zoom which is mounted on a 360mm stem.’
In order to control the contrast between the lighting inside the cages and in the surrounding room, Blonstien added lighting from carefully directed Director DR2 spotlights designed by Precision Lighting’s sister company Remote Controlled Lighting.
RCL has developed a range of spotlights that can be adjusted using laser hand controls or its iDirect app. This is often done to create flexible lighting without the effort and risks involved in using ladders, scaffolding or lifts. However, at Rock Vault, ‘another issue with the space at Somerset House is that the display galleries are Grade I-listed and so there is no opportunity to run cables across the floor,’ Jones explained. ‘Our design solution was to run attractive retro cables up into the lighting rig but this means that ladder access to focus track spots was very problematic once the display was installed. Being able to use the remote controlled lighting units to solve this was a joy.’
Organised by Michael Grubb Studios, Re:LIT aims to reduce the wastage of fully functioning lighting equipment by giving manufacturer’s outdated luminaires to a deserving community venue in need of an upgrade. The project aims to tackle the growing issue of old or damaged luminaires being discarded when in reality they still have a whole lifetime ahead of them. This sustainable solution is also helping save community venues energy, whilst bringing the public together and encouraging spaces to be shared.
Re:LIT plans to implement one community project a year. The first to welcome the new lighting scheme is the Grade II listed Shelley Theatre. Built in 1801, the manor used to be the home of Percy Florence Shelley, who in turn was the son of Mary Shelley (author of Frankenstein), but has since been abandoned and boarded up. The transformation of this manor allows the local area to enjoy the variety of musical and arts events the theatre can hold.
Many lighting manufacturers donated fixtures for this worthy and exciting cause. Precision Lighting provided the project with older generation Evo LED fixtures. The 1000lm spotlights are lockable in pan and tilt with interchangeable optics to offer flexibility. Precision Lighting donated these fixtures to the project alongside bespoke wall mounted downlighters. The custom downlighters were designed exclusively for the Titanic Belfast Museum and the engineering samples left over were supplied to this new theatre project.
Quaglino’s flagship restaurant in London has undergone multiple renovations in the past, including notably by Terence Conran in the 1980’s. Last year, the iconic restaurant underwent a multi-million pound transformation to celebrate 85 years of Quaglino’s iconic heritage. Russell Sage Studio kept elements of the original Art-Deco theme and assigned Into Lighting as lighting design consultants with the brief of a scheme which suited the luxurious interior. The majority of the scheme involved designing precise architectural lighting which Into Lighting built on top of with a textural lighting scheme.
Into Lighting appreciated the minimal design of the Evo X16 and specified them in black to complement the dramatic interior of the venue. As the luminaires could not be recessed, Into Lighting required a luminaire with an integral driver. Precision Lighting supplied the Evo X16s on monopoints to fulfil this criteria. The luminaires were used to illuminate the sides of the pillars and to highlight design features within the venue, including artwork along the walls. They were also used to provide light to the tables where honeycomb louvres were supplied to minimise glare and maximise viewing comfort for guests.
The overall result is striking and impressive; an iconic finish for an iconic name in the hospitality industry.
Queens’ College Cambridge and Hoare Lea Lighting design have given a new lease of life to The Old Hall by installing custom made luminaires from Precision Lighting. The spectacular medieval room is crammed with ornate décor by William Morris, and fine historical portraits and plasterwork, requiring a delicate approach to highlight the intricate features without interfering with the fragile structure.
Castellated beams provide the framework for most of the lighting in the hall and Hoare Lea needed to give serious consideration into how best to do this without detracting from the stunning surroundings. They specified a combination of Oculus and Domino luminaires, mounted on custom stems to bespoke enclosures designed to minimise any effect on the fabric of the building.
A high power yet discreet flood was required for general lighting so bespoke crafted trios of Dominos were custom made with stems to slightly protrude over the beams. The light from the Dominos installed provides a subtle glow above the banqueting area which is used for weddings, conferences and special dining occasions.
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