New Features information at FX magazine

if only...

Thu, 23 May 2013 05:25:21 GMT

says Hewitt Studios

The Severn Estuary Research Community Hub (SERCH) aims at bridging the gap between climate change research and action. With the old Severn Bridge now only handling 25 per cent of Severn crossing traffic, why not turn the bridge into a mixed-use scientific research colony with links to the many research universities nearby? SERCH would include living quarters, research labs, shops and offices for the permanent population, as well as communal outreach spaces such as exhibition halls, conferences rooms, a hotel and sports facilities to attract external patronage.

Built accommodation would largely clustered around the bridge's two main towers, where it would avoid excessively loading the suspension cables. Additional lightweight accommodation could be suspended below the old roadway, allowing the creation of a green, linear park along the length of the bridge.

Hewitt Studios

Hewitt Studios is a multidisciplinary design firm based in Bath and working in urban design, architecture and product design.

The project team for this If Only exercise comprised (pictured left to right) Paul Younger, associate; John Hewitt, partner; Gill Hewitt, partner; Nick Lowe, assistant; Amy Waite, assistant.

hewittstudios.co.uk

Bye bye HID light

Mon, 20 May 2013 09:58:00 GMT

As of last year new-generation, high-output LED luminaires became available, marking the start of the decline of Ceramic Metal Halide lamp as a display light source.

It will not be a particularly slow death. Within two years only the most blinkered user or specifier will be installing CMH. Indeed, by this time many of the larger users will be taking out existing fixtures and replacing them with more efficient solid-state luminaires.

CMH came to the market around 1994. Many large, high-street lighting users with huge amounts of display space were quick to adopt it because at that time the only alternatives were halogen sources that had proved inadequate.

Initially most used dichroic lamps for spotlighting. A relatively short lamp life meant the estate managers were never happy; they were constantly changing large numbers of failed lamps and the CMH solved this problem. Although the light quality was not as good as halogen and cost a lot more, CMH lasted much longer and as energy was starting to cost more, there was a payback story.

Now most, but not all, of the property departments were happy. But many users were unhappy and are still not happy with the light quality of CMH. While suppliers claim a CRI of more than 90 measurements in R9 (red) are very low, and despite a much longer life lumen depreciation is relatively quick, so a new lamp after nine months looks and performs significantly less well. Lamp changes become a very expensive monthly requirement unless you pay the huge one-off cost of planned maintenance.

Halogen remains popular in markets where energy is cheaper and is still used by many 'high-end' users to display couture or luxury goods for example, or to illuminate museums and galleries. This is because despite significant improvements, CMH is poor in light quality and consistency.

Tungsten halogen light sources have a sparkle, a joie de vivre and vitality that engender a romantic attachment that many people will miss. And as no one likes to be told what to do, many will resist the directives to remove products from the market. In short, we all like dichroic lamps, which is why we took them into our kitchens and bathrooms. By contrast, the only people who will lament the passing of CMH lamps are the big manufacturers and lamp wholesalers who will miss these huge cash cows.

Despite the belated discounts now being offered, nothing will halt progress. Ceramics will not be pushed aside by regulation as halogen is, but will be shunned by the users who recognise better efficacy, a large improvement in light quality and significant maintenance savings as far better value for money.

We have been witnessing a relatively quick change in a nationally slow-moving industry to LED products, but we are now at the very cusp of mass adoption. LED luminaires at their very best match halogen for light quality and surpass its consistency while outperforming CMH in every way; we measure performance consistency, quality and longevity.

This new technology is not as expensive as some would have you believe, but users beware - the majority of all new LED luminaires in the market may disappoint. LED is a generic term but performance varies more than any other light source you have ever bought. At best, LED performs way beyond anything that has been available before, but many products, even from well-known manufacturers, will disappoint. More than at any other time, companies will need to do their due diligence before investing, as many lighting companies appear to have very little idea of how LED lighting works. I imagine that for a user this task could prove almost impossible, but it will have to be done because right now linear LED products surpass the efficacy of the humble fluorescent lamp - 107 against 92 lumens per watt, despite only costing £3.

In two years' time, the relatively inexpensive fluorescent tube will also start to be replaced in large numbers as energy costs spiral upwards, while the LED efficiencies increase. Over the next two years LED efficacy will rise another 40 per cent as more light and less heat is produced. That is why within this time frame everyone will be buying LED fixtures.

The future of the luminaire industry will belong to the companies that can read, adapt and embrace this solid-state future.

Top 5

Fri, 17 May 2013 06:08:00 GMT

uBin recycling bin
by Green Warehouse

The uBin office recycling bin is made entirely of post-consumer recycled plastic. It has a 70ltr capacity and is 81cm in height, with a selection of optional top inserts to differentiate between types of waste.
greenwarehouse.co.uk

The London floor light
by Original BTC

This floor light has become a movie-set favourite, appearing in X-Men, Men in Black and Skyfall. The aluminium semi-sphere shade comes in a variety of colours, and a choice of bases from solid chromed brass, weathered brass and copper.
originalbtc.com

Slim lounge chair
by Viteo

Outdoor furniture brand Viteo has launched lounge chair Slim, which won the 2013 if-Award. Designed in thermo-formed Corian on a stainless steel substructure, the chair is characterised by its thin edges and simplistic structure.
viteo.com

Linea reception desk
by MDD

This reception desk range embodies simplicity with Lacobel coloured glass fronts and brushed aluminium kickplates with white LED downlights. The carcass is in MFC with the countertop in 8mm tempered glass. Units are available in white, black or red glass.
mdd.eu

IN-EI
by Issey Miyake and Artemide

Fashion designer Issey Miyake has teamed up with Italian lighting company Artemide for a range of LED lamps made from recycled material, which can instantly transform from 2D to 3D shapes. The IN-EI is now in the Design Museum's permanent collection.
artemide.com

Desitecture

Wed, 15 May 2013 06:52:00 GMT

Who:
Founded in 2005 by Layton Reid, an architect, designer and academic, Desitecture is a research-based design studio whose work explores the effects of the 'socio-political, economic and ephemeral factors on urban environments'. The design team is Layton Reid, Dan Evans, Affan Beg, Darren Farrell, Hearan Kim, Shane McRae, Adam Esposito, Lee Miles, Greg Epps, Louis Bibby, Mehmet Sisman, Simon To, Christopher Richard Hall and Leroy Kerry.

Why:
With its mission 'to make the everyday extraordinary', Desitecture has won considerable media attention internationally, yet is relatively unknown in the UK. The practice's work revaluates the way we perceive the modern city and work includes proposals for floating bridges on the Straits of Gibraltar and a room in a bag. 'Desitecture is here to ask real questions beyond convention,' says Christopher Richard Hall.

Where:
desitecture.blogspot.co.uk
desitecture.co.uk

Designed for a Marcus Evans event called Vertical Cities, Air Hive is a concept for a residential and community development in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. The building would sit on stilts above the existing favelas and would contain allotment and park areas, a hotel, shops, bars, restaurants, and facilities for health and education.

The project was shortlisted in the best experimental project category of the World Architecture Federation Awards 2012.

Cyclonic Urbis are 'prototype mini-cities'. Their location allows them to harvest wind as a source of energy, and their climatic location allows the creation of micro climates, which in turn aid the production of sustainable resources, and bring the city centre to the edge.

The glazed 'cliffs' of the landscape support the clearly artificial landscape above, which is designed for pleasure and sustainable rotational land husbandry, providing crops and produce.

As a charity pro-bono project, Desitecture designed an Elementary School in The Gambia. The project was begun by Patrick Augustus, the musician, author and founder of Lewisham Way Black Fathers Support Group, which helped raise funds. The idea for the design came from Augustus seeing a boy in The Gambia unfolding a discarded empty cigarette box. The boy told him he needed paper to write on at school. The design of the building evokes the unfolded cigarette packet in its roofline.

Richard Weston

Tue, 14 May 2013 07:07:04 GMT

When Richard Weston bought a computer scanner and began using it to capture images of minerals, fossils and stones, the professor of architecture at Cardiff University never expected to see scarves printed with the resulting patterns sell for more than £100 a piece at London department store Liberty - let alone to have his own picture splashed across the fashion pages of several national newspapers. But that's just what happened.

'When I started scanning the images I thought they might be good as pictures to hang on the wall, or something,' muses the 60-year-old, who has published several books on modern architecture, 'but I never expected all this.'

As well as scarves you can now buy iPad and iPhone covers printed with the many images and patterns Weston has captured with his high-powered scanner, and he and his business partner, who trade under the name of Weston Earth Images, have plans to expand into the worlds of architecture and interior design, with ranges of ceramic tiles and carpet tiles in the pipeline.

The moment Weston began to think of his labour of love as a potentially successful ancillary career came when he was listening to Radio 4's Today programme one morning and heard Ed Burstell, the American-born managing director of Liberty, talking about reviving the American tradition of an 'open day' where customers can come and present their own homemade products to department-store buyers. It was to be televised for a new TV show, Britain's Next Big Thing. Weston turned up to one of the open days feeling confident that his creations would wow Burstell - and they did.

Since then he has become the unlikely focus of fashion editorials, including one in Vogue that described him as 'perhaps fashion's most unexpected new design star'.

'It's been interesting,' says Weston, when I ask him about the media attention. But the academic is naturally wary of the fickle and capricious world of fashion. 'I do have my worries about fashion,' he says. 'I understand its logic and its commercialism and of course I know how it works. But I do find it slightly dispiriting that some of my most beautiful images are now "last season", and that's it as far as the fashion world's concerned.'

Fashion may have given instant life to the images, but as a trained architect Weston is keen to see them applied, with greater longevity, to the design of furniture and buildings. The designs, which after all come from nature, fit perfectly with the current trend of designing buildings that look more organic, and with the emergence of digital technology that could change the look of a building at the touch of a button it's likely that buildings will soon look however we want them to look, rather than simply looking like the materials they are made of. All of this, Weston thinks, could bring greater opportunities.

Born in Leicester in 1953, Weston went to Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys (Richard Attenborough's old school). The building wasn't very inspiring in itself, but it was near Leicester University's Stirling- Gowan's Engineering Building and this, Weston thinks, may have given him his first taste for architecture.

'I did have a very early and uninformed encounter with that major piece of architecture and I did see endless coaches of Japanese and other tourists coming to look at,' he remembers. 'But I think I can honestly say what really did lead me to architecture was, from the age of about five to 14, playing with Meccano and making model aeroplanes.'

Later, when a friend showed Weston a prospectus for the architecture degree at Manchester University, he thought, 'Oh great - you can do a degree in model making.' He duly applied and was accepted.

Nature quickly became a preoccupation. 'On the first-year course, my very first project was to analyse a leaf, and my lecturer's whole approach was a kind of abstract way of looking at form in general terms.' Around this time Weston became 'transfixed' by the ideas of American architect Louis Kahn, whom he heard speak in Manchester shortly before Kahn died in 1974.

After Manchester, Weston went on to study landscape architecture at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia before returning to England where he practiced as an architect for three years, eventually moving into academia and developing a passion for writing. Since then he has published several books, including a monograph on the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto and a study of the modernist movement, entitled Modernism.

While Weston has no plans to give up his day job, he is hopeful that he can grow Weston Earth Images into a fairly successful business. 'We're gradually growing, and we're planning on exhibiting some of our new work at Clerkenwell Design Week this month and 100% Design in September,' he says.

'We've booked our slot and they're letting us bring in a shipping container as our stand, which is going to be a sort of "container of curiosity" all about my house, which I designed, my studio and all the related interior products that we're working on. We'll also show, not just things for the house but wallpapers and tiles and all sorts of finishes, and hopefully convey a vision of how this lot might come together in a 3D environment, rather than simply isolated pieces of fabric.'

Whatever happens, it's clear that Weston is having lots of fun exploring the possibilities of his idea. But the story is also a fascinating example of a modern phenomenon in which the availability of technology is allowing amateurs to produce goods and services that would previously have been beyond their capabilities.

Says Weston: 'I used to say that because I indulged in buying a top-end Epson printer, which was the best colour printer in the world at that time, I could produce images of the same quality as anybody - in my garage. When, in human history, has that been possible?'

Vienna: Design destination

Thu, 09 May 2013 04:59:00 GMT

It's boring to stick to your past, says Norbert Kettner, director of the Vienna Tourist Board. It's so good to see a city that has a great design history but isn't reliant on it; rather it is using it as a catalyst to new, innovation creations. Kettner adds: 'We have a huge cultural heritage and we have to deal with that in a contemporary way."

He was speaking at the UK leg of the launch of the European Home Run, a competition to design a new souvenir for Vienna. Six product design practices were invited in 2012 to participate in a scheme to capture their view of the Austrian capital in three-dimensional form: Germany's Ding 3000, Switzerland's Big Game, France's Ionna Vautrin, Spain's Hector Serrano, Italy's Studio Formafantasma and PearsonLloyd from the UK.

The celebrated British duo came up with a simple interpretation of a coffee set consisting of a tray, sugar bowl, glass, and spoon, their take on the kind that can be found in the 800 or so coffee houses across the city. The teaspoon balances perfectly on the glass, which nestles neatly next to the bowl on the small rectangular tray.

'The target of this project was expose the DNA of the city,' explains Tom Lloyd. 'Coffee houses were places where people have met and where the great pieces of culture were cultivated. If the past can be created in these coffee houses, so can the future.'

PearsonLloyd is currently looking at who might be able to produce the coffee set that might inspire the next generation of Schuberts, Schieles and Freuds pontificating over a caffeine-fuelled beverage or two. Despite the Brits best efforts, it was Italian-born, Holland-based practice Formafantasma which scooped the prize, the results of which were announced last October.

Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin, who make up Studio Formafantasma, are both graduates of Eindhoven's prestigious Design Academy. They decided on a deck of cards for their souvenir design, another object synonymous with Vienna's coffee houses and one which has a resonance with Formafantasma's home nation, says Trimarchi. 'In Italy playing cards are regionally customised. They are a beautiful graphic expression of locality, while reflecting the impact of some of the different cultures which dominated the region,' she says.

The competition's judges praised the winning design's usefulness and desirability, and the way it reinvented something that has been used for centuries. 'We love Vienna because of its modernist history and its beautiful landscape. Playing cards have the ability to be perceived both as an authentic expression of the local context, while being enough of a curiosity to be collected by tourists,' says Trimarchi. 'A contemporary Viennese deck of cards can used by citizens and taken home by visitors as well as addressing some functional issues. Souvenirs should be inexpensive to produce, small enough to go in hand luggage, have a limited environmental impact and, when possible, produced locally.'

Vienna of course really came into its own in the 1900s with the proliferation of buildings and works of art that still attract visitors in their thousands, keen to see the likes of Gustav Klimt and others connected to the Wiener Werkstätte movement, which saw rapid developments in the arts, architecture, science and music, in the city's museums, galleries and antique shops. Vienna Design Week, held each September, continues this golden age into a new era with the 'Passionswege', a series of site-specific installations on the premises of established Viennese businesses, making use of workshop spaces and authentic materials. Says the city's progressively minded tourism chief Kettner: 'In a continuation of this proud history, in recent years young Viennese designers have been working with traditional manufacturers throughout the city, supplying them with original ideas and blueprints for new designs.'

One great example of this from 2012's Design Week is the Viennese design group breadedEscalope transforming the entrance area of design retailer Stilwerk into a temporary workshop, turning factory seconds from manufacturer Thonet Austria into beautiful, one-off chair designs. The general public were able to get in on the act too, building their own Thonet chair with the help of a few screws, cable binders, a bit of glue and assistance from the designers themselves. Meanwhile non-Viennese resident and Konstantin Grcic protege Charlotte Talbot collaborated with Wiener Silber Manufactur on new silverware, also on show during 2012's Vienna Design Week. It combines Talbot's interplay of materials with experimentation of form and is an attempt to bring the concept of table silver bang up to date.

Vienna-based design practice Polka came up with a new porcelain dinner service with decorative motifs for Herend, which was exhibited at Lobmeyr, its retail partner and purveyor of fine crystal in its own right since 1823. The hand-painted plates and bowls are inspired by a diverse range of influences, from Oriental motifs to graphics. Monica Singer, creative partner with Polka, says of the brief: 'The new forms and decor should work for a younger audience. Since the decor is produced using a special "underglazing" technique, which means it can be put into the dishwasher, it is more suitable for enjoyment on a daily basis.'

Polka has also worked with Lobmeyr in the past. 'Lobmeyr has, like Herend, a long tradition and history. It is a special challenge to prepare and develop its future. We work a lot with the archive and analyse and understand what happened in the history of the company to understand its true DNA. It is essential to be able to make the right contribution. We have experienced a great deal of understanding, trust and energy for experiments and new ideas from Lobmeyr, which is so important.'

The results from a number of years of the Passionswege was the subject of an exhibition at the MAK, the city's museum for design, architecture and contemporary art, which ran until March. It featured the work of experimental designers including Spain's Tomas Alonso, Max Lamb from the UK and the Dutch studio Makkink and Bey.

Thomas Geisler, one of the founders of Vienna Design Week and a curator at MAK, explains the rationale: 'It's about rediscovering the knowledge of these companies and bringing the passion to the fore.' Often the collaborations will feature designers who have no previous experience of the particular craft for which the brands are famous. For instance designer Marco Dessi worked with Viennese porcelain specialist Augarten on exploiting the centuries-old manufacturing process to produce a series of lights, vases and tableware, and Canadian Philippe Malouin collaborated with Lobmeyr on a 'sand clock': a variation on an hourglass, referencing sand as a material necessary for making glass but representing it in a highly abstract way.

Formafantasma's Andrea Trimarchi is certainly a fan of Vienna: 'In the past few years, the city has invested so much in design and great institutions such as MAK, and festivals like Vienna Design Week are giving a new vibe to the design scene.' Says Geisler: 'It's also an exercise in making sure that people are aware the manufacturers are alive in the city; getting that awareness across on a international level.' This is only possible because this manufacturing tradition has actually continued in Vienna whereas, Geisler argues, in many other bigger Western cities it has died away.

As far as homegrown talent goes he adds: 'There is a wide range of approaches but a sense of humour is deeply embedded in the culture.' The Walking-Chair design studio exemplifies this way of thinking with an idiosyncratic approach to its designs, from a revolving panoramic sofa for bars and public spaces, a round ping-pong table for meeting and dining, the Supersampler and the Colorspalsh Lomographic cameras as well as the studio's namesake: a chair with remote controlled legs that allow it to be directed across a room.

Geography plays a key part in Vienna's evolution as a design city. Singer says: 'The airport is just 20 minutes away, and being located so centrally in Europe means we can quickly get everywhere quickly.'

The fall of the Iron Curtain has also helped as Vienna is close to many emerging creative economies in eastern Europe, such as Slovenia and the Czech Republic. The advantages of its geographical location are manyfold, as Vienna-based designer Adam Wehsely- Swiczinsky points out: 'Its location at the edge of the Balkans; the nature that surrounds and inspires us - the mountains, the plains - and the places to swim in the city. Plus, with 1.8 million people, it is just the right size. You can be in three different countries within an hour, connecting East and West, between the Pannonian plain and the Alps.'

Designer Adam Wehsely-Swiczinsky is currently working on a fascinatingly diverse crop of projects including medical products, outdoor furniture and children's skis. After working for 10 years as a carpenter, Wehsely-Swiczinsky attended the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.

Its alumni also includes designer Christian Horner, who says: 'It is an art school, where you can find also departments in architecture, graphic design and sculpture, so students can attend lectures in many different fields. Vienna is a good place to live too for a designer: it is offers a very good quality of life and affordable conditions. It's a good place to concentrate.'

Since graduating in the mid-Nineties Horner has designed objects for companies that include MDF Italia and Ligne Roset, He is a main designer for office furniture manufacturer Bene, responsible for products such as the Cube_S cabinet, designed to suit both open-plan working with its transparent elements and openings and individual quiet work with its visual and acoustic screening.

Horner studied in Vienna under British designer Ron Arad ('It was one of the reasons for me studying in Vienna; he was my professor when I started.') Thomas Geisler, who also studied under the Israeli-born, British-based, Arad says: 'Ron Arad left his traces in the local design scene, no question about it.'

The mantle of professor of industrial design at the University of Applied Arts is now with Fiona Raby, of London-based practice Dunne & Raby who will strengthen yet further Vienna's reputation in terms of providing a focal point for emerging Viennese and indeed international design talent.

Vienna's built environment very much blends the old with the new. The newly refurnbished Hotel Lamée, opened in autumn last year, is a great example. Built in the Thirties it embodied early 20th-century modernism. Located right in the very centre of the city, next to St Stephen's Cathedral, it comprises 32 rooms and suites in the eight-storey building. The geometric design of the facade has been carried on into the entrance of the hotel for something of an old-school Hollywood glamorous feel while the reddish brown stone floors, walls and ceilings adds a warm tone to the interior. With art-deco-inspired light fixtures with oversized tassels, shiny red lacquered dressers and circular back-lit mirrors, it certainly has a nod to its former glories. The old-school opulence continues into the hotel's two-storey bar, bistro and cafe with its vivid wall and ceiling patterns comprising backlit wooden veneer and tinted, mirrored glass.

Architect Stephan Ferenczy with Vienna-based practice BEHF says the brief was to create 'a cosy, highly luxurious, Viennese style project befitting the existing building. The city has a long tradition of producing architecture to a high standard with world-famous interior design. The challenge is to ensure that tradition of quality and values is saved and a sense of the contemporary is added'. BEHF is also working on a number of different projects in Vienna, among them a luxury supermarket, a small coffee and wine bar and an apartment building.

Says the city's tourist board bosss Kettner: 'Vienna is a big city in a small country. It is important to look across the border and to ask people to do things. We have a huge past and a great present.' And judging by the shape and proliferation of things to come, one might add a terrific future as a design city.

The kids are alright

Wed, 08 May 2013 05:51:03 GMT

Over the past couple of years, new children's healthcare schemes have emerged that demonstrate how very seriously healthcare providers now take this patient group - and their carers - as well as how far design has come in the engineering of healthcare spaces which reassure and support their occupants.

Daylight, uplifting and strategic use of colour and materials, clear wayfinding, ample garden spaces and greenery are deployed in bold and generous measure. But there are clearly many ways to calm a stressed-out family.

For the traumatised parents at Bath's Dyson Centre for Neonatal Care, being given a space - even a window ledge - to take 'time out' from the intense activity surrounding their child is as important as providing a clear sense of progress via layout and signage to show that a child's treatment is progressing well.

When a child is sick, the whole family gets involved - siblings included. One of the most impressive schemes for maximising family engagement has to be Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital, designed by Billard Leece Partnership (BLP), with Bates Smart and HKS. Its art-filled public spaces feature not just a museum-quality aquarium in the reception foyer but also a meerkat enclosure, managed and maintained by staff from nearby Melbourne Zoo. Ron Billard, director of BLP says: 'We were very aware of the importance of distraction and attractions to make the hospital a more appealing place to come to. These features have had an enormous impact. I keep coming across parents who just rave about it all - their kids actually enjoy going to the hospital now.'

Not every design team can forge links with a zoo. This scheme, and its unique animal features, were very much inspired by the logic of BLP's initial master plan, which proposed moving the children's hospital to within the Royal Park (which the existing hospital was adjacent to but had been separated from), where the zoo is also located. As a result, says Billard, the client had time and reason to look at all the most compelling research into the role of nature and daylight as restorative and healing agents, while visiting benchmark projects around the world, as the international design competition progressed. Says Billard: 'By the time the competition was decided, the client was very focused on best practice. That gave us an enormous boost. We had a client that was completely switched on.'

While aquaria and meerkats are guaranteed to delight the under 12s, placement is crucial. Billard explains: 'The meerkat enclosure is right at the end of the outpatient clinic courtyard, behind glass so that the kids can look at them all they like without touching them (the enclosure itself is open to the sky, though protected from the elements). We put it where the maximum number of kids would benefit from it - there are 350,000 presentations a year in that group of clinics.'

But a few show-stopping features aren't enough to make a healthcare building work. According to Billard, one of the most successful design elements is the way the central atrium 'Main Street' unites and clarifies wayfinding on every level through its network of bridges and walkways. Says Billard: 'The research staff are on the top two floors but every day they have to interact with the children's hospital below, as they are walking around the building. When we visited with a team from Perth, where we're designing another children's hospital, the research team thought that was fantastic. It reminds them why they're there.'

Feilden Clegg Bradley's solution for its client, the Dyson Centre for Neonatal Care, is at the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of bells and whistles, and solves a different set of emotional and logistical issues for its occupants. One of the clearest findings from the stakeholder workshops that the practice attended was the degree of stress typically experienced in a neonatal unit, and the need to alleviate it by any means possible. Says FCB partner Matt Vaudin: 'For the parents, being in the neo-natal unit is one of the most stressful things they could ever endure. We wanted to use lots of natural light and a very calm interior that didn't have all the usual trappings of a clinical environment.' FCB's building is constructed of cross-laminated timber panels, with timber visible inside and out. Says Vaudin: 'Using timber makes the whole place feel completely different. Putting pictures of Mickey Mouse on the walls and bright colours just wasn't appropriate - particularly because babies are only just about aware of night and day. It doesn't need to look like a day nursery.'

Equally effective, says Vaudin, is the psychological sense of progress that the unit affords, by placing rooms in a clear hierarchy of care (colour coded to highlight each shift), progressing from intensive to high dependency, then special care, then parents' rooms, then home.

The building has been garlanded with several awards, including two RIBA awards (one for the building, one for its client), and 'Best Inpatient Facility Design' at the Building Better Healthcare Awards 2012.

In both cases, the inspirational and holistic solutions to specific client and occupant issues have been achieved in no small part thanks to the architects getting involved early on.

The same is true of Medical Architecture (MAAP)'s new child and adolescent mental healthcare centre in England's North. For this project, completed in October 2011, consultations kicked off as far back as 2005, when a choice of sites presented themselves. What has resulted, according to architect David Davies, is 'a completely new service model. It involves a reworking from the Trust side about how it was delivering its services as well as creating a new building typology and new accommodations.'

Davies and interior designer Scott Stewart spent a lot of time listening to what the young occupants wanted. The facility houses a very vulnerable group of inpatients - children ranging in age from four to 18, with moderate to severe learning difficulties and some with severe psychological illnesses. Working closely with a committed and passionate client team - steered by clinical lead Jane Gibson - and with energy and motivation maintained thanks to a high standard of teamwork and communication between architects, designers, contractors and clinicians, the children's demands were usually accommodated, even when they contradicted the initial instructions. For example, says Davies: 'The initial brief hadn't allocated much space to the multipurpose hall, but when the kids saw it they said they wanted to play five-a- side football. So it was expanded.'

As designs evolved, MAAP even made a full-sized mock-up of a bedroom, allowing patients' comments to impact on final designs - if they felt wardrobes should be bigger, they were made bigger. Says Stewart: 'Making mock-ups was invaluable because by the time you come to the final thing, you know it's right.' The team also brought in a poet and an artist to work with the young people in evolving a delightfully counterintuitive wayfinding scheme.

Inspired by the building's tranquil, wooded setting, each ward is identified by a particular two-tone colour palette and animal. Poems and symbols evoking these animals and colours weave their way from the wards along the route until they collide in the main social spaces. So wayfinding is oriented towards the child inpatients, rather than the visitor.

Stewart adds: 'The quality and finishes are also so much better than people expect - the lead clinician was key in driving this. She wanted the place to feel more like a hotel than an institution - even down to the duvet covers in the bedrooms being reversible, in the same two-tone scheme that each ward is identified by, so the kids can choose what colour they want uppermost. She wanted mattresses that were better than standard too. There are also big areas with pinboards so they can make it theirs.'

High-quality and durable furniture was sourced from the leisure industry rather than use typical institutional items. Says Stewart: 'We involved ourselves with those reps - the sports hall floor is the same quality as the gymnasium in the Olympics. It's just a case of haggling. Ironmongery is massively important to get right. Developing bespoke products together (at an early enough stage) doesn't make them more expensive.'

It is this kind of attention to detail - driven by the passion and engagement of design and client teams - that makes all the difference to child healthcare spaces; not just the way they look but they way they work.

As anyone with young children knows, waiting is its own form of torture, inducing high levels of stress in both child and carer. Global practice HKS has developed a new clinic design that aims to minimise it. Pioneered at Children's Hospital Dallas, this system entails providing a standardised module of 12 examination rooms arranged in a way that allows rooms to be assigned to a specific clinic as needed. Each module has its own small waiting area to serve the daily clinics, tied in to an electronic patient tracking system. All the essential support elements for the medical staff to run the clinics are in place.

Ron Dennis, principal and director of children's health facilities at HKS, says: 'The efficiency happens because when the patient comes in, they are assigned to one of the physician's two or three exam rooms and then they are expedited. It's like air-traffic control. There's a tracking system that knows where the patients and clinicians are as they move through the facility. In the past, many clinics would say come in at 7am and we'll get to you when we get to you. This way they can tell them to come in at 10am, and they'll be seen by 10.30am.'

HKS has now rolled this out to several other facilities, including Melbourne. After 30 years in the field, Dennis knows what he's talking about when he says children's hospitals are more challenging than adult ones. 'But,' he concludes, 'they are so much more exciting, because they have to take into account not just the medical but the emotional and psychological experience.'

The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne

Inspired by the hospital's setting, in Melbourne's Royal Park, The Royal Children's Hospital is filled with light and nature - real and imagined. Designed by architects at Billard Leece Partnership, along with Bates Smart and HKS, the six-storey building features a museum-quality aquarium by the reception desk, and a meerkat enclosure in the children's waiting area. A six-storey 'Main Street' at the heart of the building leaves ample space for performance, large-scale artworks, and - through its intersecting walkways and bridges at each level - a constant view on to patient activity for clinicians and researchers who occupy the upper floors. A star-shaped inpatient building is sited to the north, set into the actual parkland. Medical procedures are conducted away from calm, soft-toned bedrooms, to ensure that these spaces are a haven for both patient and families. Separation of clinical and support areas allows those areas not used 24/7 to be shut down, reducing energy consumption. Bio-mass heating and solar thermal panels reduce the building's carbon footprint, along with blackwater treatment and rainwater recovery programmes. The building is filled with art, as well as animals, including a 14m-high 'creature' in the atrium, by Melbourne artist Alexander Knox, and Jane Reiseger's charming wall illustrations that aid wayfinding.

Client: State Government of Victoria
Architects: Billard Leece Partnership/Bates Smart/HKS (USA)
Size: 165,000 sq m
Cost: $1bn (Aus)
Completed: 2011
Art consultant: Bronwen Colman

Dyson Centre for Neo Natal Care, Bath

The new Neo Natal Intensive Care Unit at Bath's Royal United Hospital (RUH) is intended to be at the forefront of sustainable and patient-family-friendly intensive care. The RUH specifically commissioned a non-healthcare architecture practice, Feilden Clegg Bradley (FCB), to approach the project afresh.

The single-storey new-build extension is constructed of large, cross-laminated timber panels, which form part of a breathable wall of wood, fibre insulation and timber cladding. Exposed timber internal panels are coated with white translucent paint for ease of cleaning, adding a quasi-domestic interior feel. Feature-wall colours are coded to aid wayfinding, ranging from green for intensive care through to pinks and oranges for the less critical areas. Care rooms are grouped around a central staff base to ensure visibility.

A landscaped courtyard between the neonatal and delivery units provides a 'decompression' zone for parents, overlooked by three comfortable parent rooms. In the critical care rooms, generously proportioned window ledges become seats for parents. Brothers and sisters have their own brightly coloured, highly interactive sibling room, featuring bespoke play equipment.

A walk-in duct along the spine of building accommodates all air-handling equipment so that maintenance staff can access and adjust equipment without entering the NICU unit - thereby helping with infection control. Sustainability initiatives include a sedum roof, low-flow water fittings, rainwater harvesting and a combined heat and power unit providing low-carbon electricity and heat.

Client: Royal United Hospital, Bath NHS Trust
Architects: Feilden Clegg Bradley
Construction value: £3m
Opened: February 2012
Healthcare researcher: Desireland
Sibling space design: Boex

Randall Children's Hospital, Portland, Oregon

Zimmer Gunsul Frasca (ZGF) was asked to consolidate the previously dispersed pediatric care facilities at Legacy Emmanuel Medical Center in Portland and create a new identity for the children's hospital on its campus. The resulting building and uplifting interiors were inspired by values established between ZGF and the hospital's leadership team: to create a building that was comfortable for all ages, full of inspiration, with a sense of unexpected discovery and thoughtful distractions.

ZGF took its inspiration from the natural world, with local geographic colourings used to distinguish departments, and local fauna appearing in uplifting art works. Public areas feature soft, curving forms as well as patterning inspired by games and objects familiar to children. Most importantly, the facilities, design and layout place family-centred care at its heart.

The new nine-storey building is filled with non-institutional textures, materials and facilities, such as bamboo doors on patient rooms, sculptural wood pendant lights. Patients and families can spend quality time together in a range of spaces, including two-storey family lounges in the patient floors, a wellness centre for families to work out in, a 20-seater theatre for movie viewings, and games rooms. A teen lounge offers foosball table, gaming software and casual, flexible seating. The 165 inpatient bedrooms feature high ceilings, ample storage, pull-out beds for parent sleepovers, entertainment centres and views on to the city or mountains. The facility also houses the Children's Cancer and Blood Disorder Unit; a new pediatric emergency department and a day-surgery unit with direct access to surgery in the main hospital. A tunnel connection, a first-floor gallery connection and second-floor bridge provide convenient links to the existing hospital's support services. A separate staff work room and lounge has been provided on each floor, with lounges on the south side of the building overlooking gardens and views.

Client: Legacy Health
Architecture and interior /Design: Zimmer Gunsul Frasca
Size: 31,000 sq m
Cost: $115m
Schedule: completed January 2012

Bayt Abdullah Children's Hospice, Kuwait

Bayt Abdullah provides a state-of-the-art facility for children and their families as they deal with the traumatic final months of the children's lives. Developed by the Kuwait Association for the Care of Children charity (KACCH) under its president Dr Hilal Al Sayer and his wife, founder and director, Margaret Al Sayer, it is the largest inpatient healthcare facility in the world dedicated to terminally ill children. The three-storey building includes a mixture of family accommodation, day-care facilities, auditorium, library, hydrotherapy and gym, school and pottery studio. Sensory rooms are used for counselling and therapy, and there are outdoor and indoor sensory gardens. There are also 11 private chalets, overlooking a nature reserve and Kuwait bay. London Eye creator Marks Barfield Architects was brought on board to design several fantastical but fully accessible playground features, including a kaleidoscopic observation wheel, a 'magic carpet' and an arial walkway that proceeds above the rooftops to an observation platform overlooking a flamingo feeding ground and nature reserve. The 15m-high wheel features eight 'pods' that can accommodate up to five children each, including wheelchair users. Naturally ventilated, they are shaded by a perforated canopy of rainbow colours reflecting the tones of the wheel. The scheme itself was inspired by architect Alia Al Ghunaim's graduate thesis on pediatric facilities. NBBJ worked closely with her to develop sympathetic interiors, graphics and signage. Interiors are vibrant, playful and child-scaled, from the low-level seating in all areas to the fantasy fibre-optic light-fittings and wall alcoves provided for play or storage. Materials are high quality, cost effective and long lasting: flooring is tough, commercial-standard rubber sheeting, Corian is used for counter tops, walls are Armourcoat, and there is maple cabinetry and millwork.

Project: Bayt Abdullah Children's hospice, Kuwait
Client: Kuwait Association for the Care of Children (KACCH)
Architect: Alia Al Ghunaim, with Gulf Consult
Interior architecture and design: NBBJ
Playground architecture: Marks Barfield Architects
Landscape architect and engineer: Gulf Consult
Cost: $30m US
Area: 14,400 sq m
Opened: 2012

Ferndene, Prudhoe, Northumberland

Surrounded by forests and greenery, Medical Architecture's 40-bedroom residential centre is designed for inpatient assessment and treatment for young people with complex health, behavioural and emotional needs, including learning disabilities. Children aged four to 18 are housed in four single-storey ward blocks which extend out to the rear of a two-storey, central shared-activity and 'school' building, like fingers from a hand, with a clear progression from public to private spaces. The main block's facilities include a cafe, sports hall and a conference room that doubles as a cinema. Open-plan offices on the first floor provide superior staff accommodation together with excellent passive supervision via rear glazing overlooking wards, courtyards and play areas.

All stakeholder groups were involved in consultations. An attempt to marry both security and dignity is evident in the final design. Each inpatient has their own bedroom - most with en-suite bathrooms - arranged around three sides of a central courtyard also overlooked from the ward lounge area. Furnishings throughout are non-institutional for a more homely or hotel-like feel. A flat is provided for visiting parents to use.

Naturally ventilated and daylit, the central building is designed in zones to eliminate corridors and also facilitate localised use of areas, thereby minimising energy consumption during winter months. Cool greens, referencing the natural setting, are used inside and outside the building, with random-patterned louvres and exterior tiling contrasting with the simple geometry of the white rendered buildings.

Client: Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust
Architecture, interiors and landscape: Medical Architecture (MAAP)
Cost: £27m
Area: 5,347 sq m
Opened: October 2011
Structural engineer: Arup
Artist: Artstop Studios

Investing in design

Thu, 02 May 2013 06:57:17 GMT

This latest outing in the FX Design Seminar series had a central theme of investment in design that posed a question - should manufacturers be involved - which itself highlighted a conundrum. Though the answer should be a no-brainer, difficulties arose in trying to pinpoint the reasons for such a dearth of investment in British design and, more importantly, how to resolve it.

There were a number of strands to the discussion. It was broadly agreed that foreigners like to be based in the UK while overseas companies seem to invest more in British design that UK manufacturers. Jonathan Hindle, CEO of KI and founding member of the Design Guild Mark, said: 'There seems to be some kind of residual resistance to our own manufacturers investing in British design. At the same time a lot of designers remain below the radar and don't seem to know where to start.'

This lack of a cohesive infrastructure in the UK contract design sector was a recurring theme. Comparisons with a more holistic interior design industry in Europe cropped up often and there were several mentions of the concept of the 'middle men'. These sport characters from both design and engineering backgrounds combined with sales/ marketing nous who are either key or irrelevant, depending on your stance, to launching new designs on to the market. These European 'agents' are able to present to manufacturers the practical advantages and functions of new products. Our roundtable panel felt that while there would be a very welcome interface between manufacturers and designers, in the UK this process is highly disjointed.

And sensitivity to price was an associated problem. Mark Gabbertas, MD of furniture and product design outfit Gabbertas Studio, pointed out: 'The British market is extraordinarily conservative and price driven. Compared with Europe, its price points are much lower. The UK post-war market has always been aspirational and not design driven. On the Continent, manufacturers prefer to sell something different and are happy to be brave and alternative. UK sales and marketing people have a much more watered down view of what might sell.'

This cultural difference in how design is perceived here versus across the Channel can't be underestimated. Mark Gabbertas pointed out: 'A lot of designers in countries such as Italy are also architects and patrons of design over there and often have other businesses behind them, such as hotels or cement factories. And they have a love affair with design. Here the priority is often just about the bottom line.'

Barbara Chandler, freelance design writer on design for the Evening Standard, interjected that it was important then to also demonstrate what the products could do. 'There mustn't be this contempt for the UK market. You have to publicise your products and show the producers what problems they will solve and not keep talking about how we can get people to be interested in the dreaded D word!' she said.

But this was a seminar about investing in design. Small wonder then that the D word wouldn't go away. And neither would the C word. Culture emerged several times as a big barrier to why innovative UK design is not embraced here as much it might be.

Graham Jones, vice president of Knoll Europe and current chairman of the Design Guild Mark, illustrated this with an example from football culture: 'You see it with highly paid British Premiership players who'll buy an expensive, ghastly car but then get all their furniture from IKEA. It's different in Europe, where the equivalent player will have bespoke, high-quality design. In the UK people seem to want what everyone else has and are just so conservative in their tastes.'

But is it a fair comparison to compare chav money with taste and good design? Owner of furniture manufacturer SCP Sheridan Coakley quipped: 'Nobody ever lost money underestimating the safeness of the UK market,' while Tom Lloyd, of design studio PearsonLLoyd said: 'Too many people in the UK don't understand the value of design. They think it's about cushions.'

And while no one questioned the innate creativity of the British (there are supposedly 280,000 working designers in the UK), there emerged a strong sense that insularity was a barrier to much greater success for those wishing to pursue adventurous design. Or indeed to younger designers trying to become established.

Following Mark Gabbertas's news that he had seen only a solitary British designer represented at last April's Milan Furniture Fair, Simon Pengelly, of Pengelly Designs, said: 'Our island mentality seems to prevent us from going abroad to sell. UK designers display a lack of flag waving. You'll generally see more of the people you want to sell to in one place, at a fair like Milan, than you would here, but trying to convince people to go is almost impossible.'

There was general agreement that British designers should be much more proactive on several fronts, and not leave it to the manufacturer. This would have to include selling everything from the concept of design to identifying a market demand for their product. The example was cited of how Italian designers traditionally, and with great success, sell to the German market. But then the image and brand of Italy is closely associated with the best of stylish design, from handbags to sports cars (back to rich footballers again!). The question of where Britain's USP might ? t was taken up by Jonathan Hindle.

He said: 'I wonder how British designers can distinguish themselves. Should it be in marketing or through sheer brand design? Also, our designers haven't yet sold the idea of design to the UK public or manufacturers. They have to persuade them that it can represent pro? t, innovation and something tangible.'

Cherrill Scheer, daughter of the Hille family furniture empire of post-war Britain, explained that Nanna Ditzel was recognised in the street in Denmark by the general public, which can't be said for Tom, Mark and Simon, all of whom have contributed enormously to the UK's design profile. FX editor and chair of the seminar Theresa Dowling then asked Cherrill, would Robin Day have been so famous and become a household name had not the Hille company taken him up and invested a fortune in his promotion, and that of his products Hille was manufacturing?

Mark Gabbertas said: 'Some designers have a role in selling the value of their design to the client, but how far this is valued depends on how informed the client is. However flexible you are with a lot of companies, you can get sucked in to the morass of "Well, we only do it in these colours" and so on, and of course they are also often restricted by their distribution channels.'

Sheridan Coakley felt one shouldn't sit back and hope for someone else to do the hard work. He said: 'Designers should be persuading manufacturers that there is a design worth investing in. Dyson is a superb example of a British designer's company that continues to thrive. It demonstrates ongoing innovation, persistence and great marketing.' Dyson is an interesting example of how Sir James Dyson, as a designer, became a global manufacturer because there was no backing for his original product.

Looking beyond our shores was seen as absolute key to survival, for both designers and manufacturers. Indeed Tom Lloyd said that his business had worked only with foreign manufacturers in its first decade: 'We didn't sense in those first 10 years that UK manufacturers would be interested. Because there isn't a real value given to design in this country, it's not rewarded.' His opinion was backed up by Simon Pengelly's memory of his early years: 'My experience was of getting paid peanuts. There was just a big lack of appreciation of design.'

Once again mention was made of countries such as Italy where skills and expertise were often present in a tight geographical radius, thereby allowing a symbiosis of skills and expertise, be it in steel bending, textiles or carpentry.

Jonathan Hindle said that he knew of small 'hubs' similar to this developing in Yorkshire, though they were still at embryonic stage. And Sheridan Coakley said that a wide pool of unused design skills still exists in traditional manufacturing areas such as the Potteries around Stoke-on-Trent. He thought it still possible to encourage manufacturers back to that skills pool.

Barbara Chandler said that the process has already begun and that some young designers are passing on going to places like the Royal College of Art and instead going straight to places like Stoke-on-Trent to base themselves.

Though small and pioneering these might seem now, they could be the start of a new area of innovative and pragmatic British enterprise. And there was a reminder that not everyone on the Continent is getting it right. The designers sitting around the table noted that their experience of dealing with Spanish companies was of massive inflexibility. It was mind-boggling, depressing and frustrating, reported one: 'They make the Yorkshire hubs look very sophisticated!'

There was a brief discussion on whether manufacturing that had relocated to places such as China might start to reconsider coming back to the UK, perhaps to places like Stoke-on- Trent or Yorkshire. UK flooring design firm Amtico is one such example of a company that has returned to the UK (Coventry) from China. Simon Pengelly said that this is becoming a trend and that UK businesses are leaving China 'for all sorts of reasons'. These might include cultural difficulties in business practice, sheer distance and the carbon footprint of importing goods across thousands of miles.

Jonathan Hindle was more specific. 'Buying from a local manufacturer has obvious benefits such as accessibility to customers and the designers, so that when there's a problem, it can be easily sorted out,' he said. 'Also, China requires payment upfront before anything is delivered. And receiving any money from them can take a very, very long time."

The overarching conclusion of this seminar was the need for a much more synergistic approach. There was a strong realisation that UK retailers, designers and manufacturers must begin to be more proactive, less isolated and much keener to talk and cooperate with one another. Looking to the Continent for ideas on working more closely could be a start. And selling much more abroad should be high on the wish list too. If that happens, maybe it will produce a head of steam that will excite UK public taste and curiosity and might even instil the deeper sense of appreciation here that British designers so long for.

There was much talk of the Design Council and its role to facilitate business and promote UK design - could it fill the joined-up role that is lacking over here but which Europe appears to have? Could it fill the gaps that had been identified with regard to how the UK could do it better? Could it provide all the answers to satisfy designers, manufacturers, market conditions, UK's design profile - and footballers' taste? A big ask indeed!

Ben, Blacksheep, and Bison – All at Ege Carpets

Wed, 01 May 2013 05:15:29 GMT

Blacksheep interior designer Ben Webb was confirmed as the unanimous winner of the Ege Carpets design competition by judges Jacqueline Griffiths, in-house designer, at Ege Carpets, renowned textile designer Geoff Healey, and myself, in my capacity of editor of FX magazine.

The culmination of the competition, which had been running in FX over the past six months, resulted in a whirlwind trip to Denmark and the Ege Carpets factory in the south of the country for the four finalists, to enable them to transform their digital 2D digital entries into 3D samples of carpet, and for the judging panel to select the winner.

In association with FX, Ege Carpets wanted to give a designer or design student the chance to see their carpet design go into production. The winner will receive a two-day internship with ege's design team in Denmark and three per cent of all gross sales from their carpet design for three years from the date of its launch.

The other finalists were Jon Carter and Lucy Dickson, both architecture students from Oxford Brookes University graduating this year, and Grace Foster, who's about to graduate from her BA textile course at Leeds College of Art. The four finalists were asked to produce their designs as a square metre sample at the facilities at Ege's enormous factory near Billund, home of Legoland, during a two-day trip.

They were then asked to produce a second sample by adapting the colours of their pieces to the company's standard palette. This proved very useful in the judging process to assess how flexible their designs could be for clients. We then scored all four submissions without collaboration, so none of the judges knew who was actually the winner until the official announcement and prize presentation.

For me Ben's design had the visual punch of 'the ground' of a Rembrandt painting, rich with subtle visual interest, yet dependent on the colours and tones selected the bold geometry could also dissolve into the background.

While I was there for just the one day, whereas the other judges and finalists had been able to spend two days with Ege Carpets, the company's generosity was evident in goodwill, good humour and good food. But as I was walking from one part of the factory to another, I spotted what I thought might have been a company mascot. Or pet? But on doing a double take, I realised that 'it' was just one of a herd of bison, owned and cared for by Ege Carpets. This is apparently the legacy from the company's founder Mads Eg Damgaard, a keen supporter of wildlife conservation.

It's not often you come across bison in corporate and contract design, but it's definitely memorable! I wondered, post-competition, will a bison now be named after the winner? You have to agree that Ben the Bison has a certain appeal, as indeed does Ben Webb's winning design.

Make an entrance

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 05:28:00 GMT

Project 1:
Spectrum Building, Glasgow
Lighting design: KSLD
Architect: Michael Laird Architects

The aim was to improve the visibility and appeal of an existing commercial rental property and make it more saleable to prospective occupants. The budget was very tight and the lighting brief included the entrance, entrance lobby, first-floor lobby areas and main staircase, plus the exterior facade, improving the on-street presence. 'The concept throughout was minimal, linear, clean and bright,' says Claire Hope of KSLD.

A simple vertical array of 5000K LED light boxes on the facade, nicknamed the Barcode, has the capability for basic animation - a random, slow-fade sequence to give a gentle differentiation between panels - creating a bold statement at street level. Created by Mike Stoane Lighting, they kick in during the early hours of the evening when footfall near to the building is high, 'a touch of flair to draw the attention of prospective clients,' says Hope. 'The subtle animated ripple of the light boxes makes the building stand out from its neighbours in a very understated way.'

This linear theme is picked up in the interior, first with the ceiling-recessed fluorescent luminaires above the reception desk (Prolicht's White Line fittings). 'One of the reasons we chose them was because the illumination continues behind the integrated spotlights,' says Hope. 'Most other similar products had separate units for the spotlights, creating a dark patch and limiting the choice for their location.'

The theme continues with fluorescent linear fittings with 90-degree bends (Concord Continuum trimless profile) framing each of the lift lobby areas, emphasising the form of the space. Elsewhere trimless versions of Delta Light's Maestro and Grid luminaires were used for stair and circulation lighting. 'Trimless fittings and indirect lighting were used throughout to keep the architecture free and open,' says Hope.

Project 2:
50 George Street, London W1
Lighting design: Light + Design Associates
Architect: Allies and Morrison

The brief was to create a clean, open reception space that could subtly draw attention to the light and airy reception space beyond the tunnel-like street entrance. 'The scheme had to deliver minimal visible luminaires so it did not detract from the clean lines and simple interiors proposed by the architect,' says LD+A's Nathan Brookes. 'We wanted to maximise street views by washing the rear feature wall in light, and unifying the single and double-height reception spaces with a lit effect that draws you through the space as a whole.'

As visitors enter the reception they are greeted by 3.5m-tall milky white glass panels backlit with daylight and LED strips to provide homogeneous lighting throughout the day and into the night. Visitors are then guided through the reception with a subtle, low-level LED wash of light along the sides of the floor and backlit floating ceiling rafts.

A main challenge was ensuring that the milky glass walls were evenly lit day and night. As well as backlighting the panels, luminaires also had to provide a soft wash of light on to the floor and ceiling. Specific mounting locations for any light fittings were very limited, and several LED strips and fittings were trialled to check that there was a good trade-off between light output and distribution. The fitting selected was the LED Linear VarioLED ATON Plus, supplied by Architainment Lighting.

The minimal space behind the wall cladding had to incorporate direct lighting details into the side walls to achieve floor and ceiling illumination. 'We wanted to produce an even homogeneous light across the glass with no lamp imaging,' says Brooke. 'Luminaire offsets and angles had to be carefully considered to ensure there were no visible luminaire reflections and provide an even-lit effect across the floor and ceiling.'

The focus of the main reception is the large LED-backlit timber reception desk and, behind this, vibrant orange back and side walls that feature a seamless line of light wrapping around the corner wall. Only energy efficient sources - LED and fluorescent - were used, achieving an overall luminaire efficacy of 67lm/W.

'The project involved a fair amount of lateral thinking to overcome problems presented by the immoveable existing services and interfacing with new glazing systems,' says Brookes.

Project 3:
IBM Forum, Southbank, London
Lighting design: AECOM Lighting
Architect: HOK and Coast

The IBM Forum London is a 1,740sq m business and conferencing facility for clients and partners, comprising a conference suite with nine meeting rooms around the building perimeter, with river views. The Innovation Centre, arranged around a central courtyard, is a showcase area featuring a changing exhibition and audio-visual displays (interactive demonstration units, static graphic and animated multimedia walls) depicting the computer company's past and present.

The space is lit entirely with LED sources, including display lighting, joinery skirt lighting, downlights and concealed cove lighting (XAL, Erco, Soltech Systems, Architectural FX, Radiant and Light Projects). At the centre of the concept are luminous apertures, backlit Stretch Ceilings formed into continuous curved lines and oversized circular shapes (echoing IBM's Smarter Planet initiative logo).

Developed in collaboration with architecture practice HOK, German Designer Coast and Edward Ray Lighting, the apertures are backlit by a modular array of low-powered LED boards with a combination of cool white and blue LEDs.

'The pattern and size of the details were aesthetically and technically optimised to achieve the desired visual language, lighting levels, and define focal points and display areas,' says AECOM's Xavier Fulbright. The blue lighting provides a sense of theatre, creating a more dramatic context for the visitor, and is also a visual link to IBM's brand identity and history.

Various LED solutions were trialled by the lighting team, which eventually opted for the LED board format as it provided the necessary homogeneous lighting appearance in a shallow-depth installation (60mm). The boards were designed to have a close-pitch spacing, which ensures no LED imaging and a uniform lit appearance on the fabric.

All the LEDs are run at low forward currents to achieve optimum efficacy and long life. They have a colour rendering of Ra84-plus and a colour consistency within a three-step MacAdam ellipse. Each LED only provides 16.5lm, but the additive effect of all the LEDs allows the lighting scenes to operate on set dimmed levels for energy savings.