Designer bags and accessories brand Okapi use Precision Lighting to put their luxury handmade pieces under the spotlight throughout their flagship store.
Founded in 2008, by South African painter Hanneli Rupert, Okapi is a quintessential African luxury brand. Steady growth for the next nine years resulted in Hanneli opening the first Okapi flagship store in the art and design lifestyle haven of Keyes Art Mile in Johannesburg.
The design brief was to create a bright, clean and contemporary space to highlight the bold colours, luxurious finish and originality of each handmade item. Tonic Design were assigned to fashion a rich and timeless interior finish, whilst Smith Tait Lighting Designers were entrusted with creating an opulent and comfortable ambience.
White Discus 16s mounted on Retrac run across the length of the store to highlight Okapi’s key pieces along the elegant walkway, while task lighting over the beautiful deco style desks at the front and rear of the store is provided by white adjustable trimless pinhole Minimo 11 fittings, seamlessly integrated into the contemporary moulded ceiling.
Fashion house Nicole Fahri’s global flagship store in London has installed Precision Lighting EVO R16 spotlights for its window display lighting. The new Conduit Street store with lighting design by Inverse Lighting Design has 40 of the spotlights mounted on Eutrac lighting tracks and placed discreetly out of view in a specially designed trough.
Precision Lighting’s EVO range is used in a variety of retail, hospitality and display applications. The EVO R16 is a sleek, spotlight for LED, high intensity discharge or halogen lamps, with a range of interchangeable snoots, lenses and louvres. Nicole Fahri has EVO16s with 35W IRC lamps and honeycomb louvres to prevent glare. Halogen is particularly suited to lighting fashion and textiles due to its high colour rendering
Precision Lighting recently extended the EVO range of lockable spotlights to include the EVO 20-LED, the ‘big brother’ of the EVO 11 and EVO 16 spotlights, which share the same design aesthetic, based on clean lines and classic proportions and are available in brushed aluminium, rubbed bronze, black, white and custom finishes.
Adaption and evolution played a fitting part in lighting the Darwin Centre, phase 2, the newest addition to one of the UK’s biggest tourist attractions. The award-winning building by Danish architect CF Møller and housing millions of exhibits, presented a complex challenge to lighting designer Sutton Vane Associates, whose task included maintaining a consistent aesthetic across the exhibition areas while improving on the base-build lighting and enhancing the visitor experience.
The practice specified Precision Lighting’s Microspot C16 luminaire in black, which was then integrated a custom baffle to remove any light spill from the rear. Different arm lengths were designed to fit into four types of base plates: two standard and two custom-made. All the luminaires were fitted with a short snoot for glare control, and many were supplied with a self-dimming transformer with local potentiometer.
The development of humanity itself is charted in the Natural History Museum’s latest permanent gallery, Human Evolution and luminaires from Precision’s Pico and Minimo families light this extraordinary story in an enchanting scheme by Studio ZNA.
The Human Evolution gallery opened in December 2015, and traces the evolutionary journey of the hominins, from the the first upright primate ancestors through to modern humans, and showcases a number of significant discoveries in the understanding of our ancestry.
The Natural History Museum’s Professor Chris Stringer, explained the importance of the new gallery, particularly in light of these new findings: “With the latest investigative research techniques that are available here, such as CT scanning and DNA analysis, we continue to uncover the origins and dispersals of humans in an ever-changing world and present these advances in this permanent display.”
Studio ZNA, who have previously lit a number of permanent and temporary galleries at the Museum, including the acclaimed Coral Reef exhibition, were once again enlisted to light some of the Museum’s most intriguing exhibits.
For the lighting of a series of five skulls and matching facial reconstructions demonstrating the changing structure and facial qualities of the homo genus, ten miniature recessed luminaires from the Minimo family were specified, marking one of the first installations of this newly launched range.
The Minimo Eye luminaires, featuring 95CRI LEDs, cast tight spots over the skulls and reconstructions, perfectly capturing the unique and defining features in each head, allowing the visitors to the exhibition to easily understand the facial development in the presented specimens from homo erectus through to homo neanderthalensis.
Given that the precise location of each skull presented was not known by ZNA before commissioning, the Minimo Eye’s flexibility after installation was a crucial benefit. With a choice of three tool-less interchangeable optics, full 360° rotation through the pan, and a maximum tilt of 30°, the Minimo Eye has been designed for versatility without affecting the discreet and elegant design.
The glare control of the Minimo family also paid dividends for Studio ZNA, as the Minimo Eye could be installed adjacent to the main through-fare of the exhibition, yet avoid intrusive glare for visitors thanks to the large glare-cut off angle.
Pico S1 luminaires were installed with custom stem lengths to provide a steep incident light to illuminate further specimens displayed throughout the exhibition. The custom length and the flexibility of the LED spotlight allowed a precise beam angle from above the objects presented, avoiding reflectance and ensuring excellent vertical illuminance that reveals the significant features of each fossil.
The Pico S1 fittings were finished in brushed aluminum that reveals the expert machining process in which all Precision products are manufactured, as well as the quality of the 6063-T6 grade material that both Pico and Minimo are machined from. This unique aerospace-grade aluminum has excellent thermal performance, allowing the LEDs in Precision’s portfolio to run cooler and more efficiently.
Further luminaires from the Pico family were specified by Studio ZNA for the exhibition. Numerous Pico Surface spotlights were used to illuminate larger display cases, including the the most scientifically accurate life-size Neanderthal and early homo sapiens models displayed publicly.
The Surface variants of Pico provide the same options of interchangeable optics, and lockable pan and tilt as the stem-mounted variants, whilst also having the added advantage of their minimal footprint, which adds to the understated appeal.
This unobtrusive aesthetic is underpinned in the lighting of the ‘Cheddar Man’, a Mesolithic skeleton found at Somerset’s Cheddar Gorge. The 7,500 year old remains are laid flat at the new exhibition, with Pico Surface mounted in a vertical position unobtrusively at the feet of the Cheddar Man, casting balanced light perfectly across Britain’s oldest complete human skeleton.
The complete scheme from ZNA represents a demonstration of the sympathy required in lighting the relics of our shared ancestry. The lighting scenario treats these unique fossils with dignity, yet reveals the crucial steps in the evolution of humanity so that visitors to the gallery take new learnings from the exhibition, thanks to the discreet appearance and superior performance found in both of the Precision ranges.
Precision Lightings LED range has been used extensively throughout the newly transformed Hintze Hall at the Natural History Museum in London. The treasured Hintze Hall has been transformed with its new addition ‘Hope’; the female blue whale skeleton which has taken the place of ‘Dippy’ the beloved Diplodocus. Measuring at 25.2 metres long, she is a spectacular sight to behold that celebrates the relationship between humanity and a sustainable future.
Hope is not the only addition to the exhibit; she is accompanied by hundreds of other new specimens, including an American Mastodon. The huge Ice-age mammoth is illuminated by Precision’s Evo X16s on a custom curved basis track from above, finished in an unique anodic brown to fit the traditional and historic surrounding architecture.
Throughout Hintze Hall, there are 10 ‘Wonder Bays’ (the ground-floor alcoves along either side of the hall) that are filled with the other new specimens, all of which are lit using Evo X11s that along with their Evo X16 counterparts, are finished in antique bronze effect paint. The Evo X family was perfect for lighting these fantastic historical pieces due to their beautifully minimal aesthetic and high CRI, meaning these specimens can be seen in their true glory.
Working closely with the Lighting Designer – DHA Designs, we produced bespoke curved track that integrated seamlessly into the historic grade 1 listed building. Rubbed bronze and antique effect finishes were used extensively to complement the existing interior.
The V&A’s Fabric of India exhibition, central to the London museum’s India Festival, features over 200 objects including a spectacular 18th century tent that once belonged to Tipu Sultan. To highlight the incredible craftsmanship that the collection demonstrates, LED spotlights from Precision’s Pico family were chosen by independent lighting designers Studio ZNA to illuminate this gorgeous collection of antique textiles and garments, including a completely bespoke chandelier for Tipu’s Tent.
The exhibition, the first major European exhibition to explore the 6,000-year narrative of India’s hand-crafted fabrics, see many of the V&A’s collection from South Asia go on public exhibit for the first time, in addition to a number of items loaned to the museum from international lenders. Pieces dating as early as the 3rd century are presented alongside works from contemporary designers.
Fabric of India informs visitors of how the handmade textiles from the country have been a celebration of courtly wealth, as well as a sacred accompaniment to sacrosanct worship. The inclusion of more recent pieces demonstrate how the Indian textile craft survived emergence of industrialisation, and united a fracture country as a symbol of power and protest. Alongside antique fabrics, the inclusion of 21st century works demonstrate the new relevance handmade textiles have to an emerging economy, and illustrate the creativity that is exciting and influence fashion, art and design.
Studio ZNA, independent lighting designers applauded for their work within the museum and gallery sector, were entrusted with lighting the textiles within the exhibition, which occupies more than two of the V&’s main exhibition spaces.
Studio ZNA’s brief was to keep the light levels low. “Due to the textile content within the exhibition, we had to keep to 50 lux or below,” explained Carolina Sterzi, lighting designer at Studio ZNA. Further challenges including ensuring that the lighting scheme was delivered in a way which both addressed the museum’s limited budget, as well as the V&A’s commitment to environmental concerns, which required the practice to reuse as much existing stock equipment as possible.
“The lighting approach was really simple,” described Sterzi. “We wanted to use the existing track lighting elements as much as possible in lighting the setwork and the large open display. Further local lighting was added for the display cases to avoid intrusive reflections that would compromise the visitor experience”.
Over 30 Pico Surface LED spotlights from Precision were specified for the additional local lighting elements on the mannequin displays within the cases. Key to the specification was the low energy consumption, with the luminaires consuming just 1.6W, whilst the small size of the fittings removed any potential intrusion on the display of the textiles.
Beam control was also critical, according to Stezi: “The Pico spotlights were particularly helpful in controlling the light on the fabrics.
“The flexibility of the fitting, in addition to the option of different beam angles available meant that it was easy for us to direct light that allowed each object to shine while still complying with the targeted low light levels.”
Pico Surface, a discreet spotlight based on a minimalist aesthetic and small footprint provided versatility through the lockable constant torque tilt mechanism and low friction bearing rotation, also lockable. These advanced features allowed Studio ZNA to precisely aim each luminaire, confident that the focus of the beam would remain consistent.
Close collaboration with Gitta Gschwendtner, the architect for the exhibition, was fundamental for Studio ZNA in order to achieve a seamlessly integrated lighting scenario that would appear ‘natural’ and attention to detail during the construction phase was key. Nowhere was this more key than for planning the lighting of one of the highlights of the exhibition, the massive 8m diameter canopy of Tipu’s Tent, a tent owned by the 18th-century Indian ruler of Mysore, Tipu Sultan.
Displaying this spectacular fabric canopy and walls was a key challenge for the exhibition team. While the canopy still has all of the original guy ropes, these were not used to pitch the tent, due to the inappropriateness of putting this antique fabric under tension, as well as being a potential trip hazard in the open exhibition space.
Accordingly, it was determined that a supportive mounting system was to be developed, that both provided visitors the exhibition with an opportunity to see as much of the canopy as possible as well as support the more fragile cotton areas of the canopy.
ZNA were invite to provide feedback on how the lighting could be integrated into this mounting system so that the canopy and walls could be lit to best effect, while also offering the minimum intrusion, as display of the voluminous tent display was tailored so that visitors could best appreciate its scale.
For the periphery of the tent, diffused background blue light creates the impression of the tent being pitched in the daylight of an open air space.
Studio ZNA worked with Precision to develop a completely bespoke chandelier based on the lighting manufacturer’s low-voltage Basis Track system to light the interior of the canopy and the bamboo supported tent walls.
To ensure that the chandelier would not be too intrusive, it was produced to an extremely tight 0.5m radius, the tight curvature of the track and prototype assembly was carried out at Precision’s London factory facilities. 18 Basis Track variants of the Pico spotlight were fitted to the chandelier to provide the low-level lighting required for lighting the tent’s interior.
In what is a ground-breaking exhibition that celebrates Indian textile design, Studio ZNA have produced a design scenario that not only meets the brief in regards to economical and environmental commitments, but also in highlighting the incredible story of India’s handmade fabrics, and the role that these textiles have played in the emergence of a nation.
When lighting designers Studio ZNA needed a flexible spotlight to illuminate the natural treasures within the Natural History Museum’s latest temporary exhibition, they turned to Precision’s Pico LED spotlight range.
The exhibition, ‘Coral Reefs: Secret Cities of the Sea’ features over 250 specimens in a fascinating experience that tells an incredible story of biodiversity in the shallow waters of the Tropics.
Acclaimed as one of the most immersive exhibitions the Natural History Museum has ever produced, the innovative use of sound and lighting within the exhibition combine to create an enchanting experience of being under the sea. Further design elements incorporate hexagonal decorative structures, designed to imitate the growth of coral, and a captivating virtual reef dive that will surely inspire visitors to recognise the vital role that coral plays in the planet’s ecosystem.
Studio ZNA, the award winning lighting design practice whose prior museum credits include London’s V&A Museum and the Science Museum, were tasked with bringing the varied oceanic riches featured to life.
Studio ZNA selected a number of characteristic Pico S1 LED spotlights to light the incredible specimens that make up the exhibition, including a giant clam, a variety of sponge samples, and a number of highly significant coral samples, including six corals collected by Charles Darwin in the 1800s during his voyages of discovery aboard the HMS Beagle, presented at the exhibition alongside his handwritten notes.
Over 60 of the distinctive stem-mounted spotlights were used in this beautiful display of exotic coral species, with the Pico fittings mounted and aimed to reflect each sample’s uniqueness.
For the Giant Turbinaria coral, a metre-wide coral that is one of the flagship exhibits, the stem mounted Pico luminaires dramatically illustrates the many ruffled ridges of the sample, with the 30° flood optic washing light across the coral, illustrating the cavities in which thousands of marine animals once inhabited. The 115lm output of the spotlights adds a touch of theatre to the unique folds of the hardened exterior, with the contrast between the labyrinth-like crevices illustrated with aplomb.
The studio also specified a large number of surface mounted Pico fittings, sharing the stem-mounted variants’ optical performance, but with a minimal aesthetic and delicate footprint, the luminaires could be installed within the exhibit’s cabinets. These miniature luminaires’ unobtrusive appearance serves to ensure the visitor’s attention is on the specimens presented, rather than the light source illuminating them.
For specimens that could be handled by visitors to the exhibit, the advanced accurate aiming features of the Pico family were put to good use. With a low friction bearing 360° rotation and a constant torque tilt mechanism, beam accuracy can be acutely fine-tuned. As both the pan and tilt rotation can be locked, the exhibition team can be sure the luminaires are always casting the coral specimens in the best light despite the close proximity to visitors.
Studio ZNA recognised the flexibility found throughout the Pico range thanks to this innovative control, further supplemented by a choice of three site changeable optics. Despite these advanced features, the stem-mounted version of the spotlight remains delightfully delicate; with a total weight of just 100g, and a luminaire head of just 40mm length, the form-factor of this miniature spotlight remains unparalleled. For applications where discretion is paramount, such as the exhibition’s cabinets, the surface variant is even more discrete, with a total weight of just 47g, and is installed using a miniscule 37.5mm diameter mounting plate.
The Pico family’s star-turn at the Coral Reef exhibition is not the first time this unique spotlight has been featured in a landmark museum environment. Pico, whose innovative features are not usually found within luminaires so small, also performed to acclaim in the Imperial War Museum, and has illuminated other biological marvels in the Nature Library at the Manchester Museum.
The Cheapside Hoard is the world’s largest and finest collection of late 16th and early 17th century jewels and gemstones and is currently on display at the Museum of London. Studio ZNA chose Precision Lighting’s Pico 1 Surface LED spotlights to light the high security display cases which together house nearly 500 priceless items.
The Hoard itself forms a centrepiece of a major season on jewellery and will be displayed at the Museum of London until the end of April 2014. It has not been viewed as a whole since it was discovered a little over a century ago.‘ At nearly 500 glittering pieces, The Cheapside Hoard includes delicate finger rings, cascading necklaces, Byzantine cameos, a beautiful jewelled scent bottle, and a unique Colombian emerald watch,’ says Exhibition curator Hazel Forsyth. ‘This priceless collection of jewels is the City of London’s most exquisite stash of buried treasure, and it is the single most important source of our knowledge on early modern jewellery worldwide.’
Lighting designer Zerlina Hughes worked with interior design practice Ben Kelly Designs to modify the exhibition’s high security display cases. 108 Pico down-lights and their drivers are housed within hoods, which help to draw visitors’ eyes below a horizontal line, focusing their gaze away from the surrounding contemporary architecture. A further 28 Pico 1 Surface spotlights are also present within the cases, providing up-lighting for objects such as pendant jewellery.
Pico 1 Surface is a discreet LED spotlight, based on a minimal aesthetic and small footprint. Movement is aided with a low friction bearing rotation and constant torque tilt mechanism, both lockable in pan and tilt. Optics can be changed on site offering flexibility to the specifier and to ensure setting up and focusing is as simple and quick as possible. Pico 1 Surface is machined from Aerospace grade 6063-T6 aluminium, delivering a lumen package of 125lm at 1.6W.
“The museum is designed for flexibility, and services in the ceiling such as air-conditioning are visible. This has advantages for the museum but we needed to create a different aesthetic for this wonderful collection of tiny, glittering objects. These little LED spots provide localised lighting that makes these artefacts sparkle and reveals them in detail. They are designed to help you work fast and accurately.”
– Zerlina Hughes, Founder and Creative Director, Studio ZNA
In total, 1,300 Precision Lighting Radar ML adjustable spotlights have been specified for the £70 million Museum of Liverpool, the largest national museum to be built in 100 years, housing some 6,000 artefacts.
The museum’s largest exhibition spaces are 40 metres long by 28 metres wide and 10 metres high, with large volumes and wall spaces to light, the lighting had to be both precise and flexible. The Radar ML spotlight is fully adjustable and lockable which has a snoot that both helps eliminate glare and has space for glass accessories.
Like many Precision Lighting products, its design development has been directly influenced by input from clients. In this case, discussions with lighting designer Sutton Vane Associates led to making the Radar ML lockable in both pan and tilt along with incorporating a silicon-coated focusing stem. In addition, to make lamp changing faster, Precision Lighting designed a push-fit lamp holder and added a simple twist and lock mechanism that holds the lamp safely in position – all without compromising the product aesthetic.
Estiatorio Milo’s Restaurant London is the sixth restaurant from the acclaimed chef Costas Spiliadis. The Greek chef’s attention to detail was the initial starting point for lighting design of the restaurant, in a scheme by DPA, which features over fifty luminaires from Precision’s Retro range.
The restaurant, located at London’s Regent Street, resides in the Grade II listed building that previously served as British Columbia House. As part of the building redevelopment, Canadian architect Alain Carle was entrusted to redevelop the restaurant interiors.
The primary importance for Michael Curry, senior associate at DPA, when defining the lighting scheme was to ensure the food was lit well, with the cuisine at both the displays and and at the diners’ tables was to be the focus. As Curry states, there was to be “no compromise on fashion or gimmick for decoration” in this respect.
DPA worked closely with Carle, whose design for Milo’s redefined the interior spaces as elegant backdrops to the theatre of the restaurant.
Curry explained how the lighting design was essential to bringing the interior to life: “By adding theatrical lighting accent to the food and tables, bars and displays, we’ve reinforced the visual focus and interest of these areas.”
Lifting the architecture of the space, is the decorative Studio Pendant Orb from Neidhardt, which offers a visual integration between the ground floor in the double height main restaurant space, and the mezzanine level. The affect provided by the pendants is akin to a glowing jellyfish floating within the restaurant, tying the lighting scenario thematically to Milo’s seafood menu choices.
Spotlights from Precision’s Retro range were carefully and discreetly integrated within the ceiling details to pick out both the tables below and focal areas of the restaurant, including the bar and fish displays.
Curry says of the choice of spotlight: “The Retro luminaires were chosen for the simple and sympathetic design of spotlights as well as the seamless integration of the ReTrac system within the ceiling details to the mezzanine and the feature ceiling above the ground floor bar where sensitive detailing was needed”.
ReTrac is Precision’s discreet low-voltage recessed track system, and white cover strips were used to conceal the track for maximum aesthetic integration to suit Carle’s interiors.
Further Retro spotlights, again installed via Retrac, were employed to cast light across the earthenware feature urns that decorate the periphery of the upper restaurant space.
Back to top
