Sill Lighting has illuminated the Refectory at Norwich Cathedral Visitor Centre, adding another prestigious ecclesiastical project to its portfolio.The Refectory is part of a development plan to help sustain the future life of the heritage site. Hopkins Architects worked creatively within the existing archaeological fragments of the cathedral to design a free-standing, single storey timber clad structure with mezzanine.
Having worked successfully with Sill on previous projects, Sophy Twohig, project director for Hopkins Architects, specified 36 of Sill's 021 series narrow beam projectors to uplight the nine pairs of English oak columns inside the Refectory, which support the ceiling. Fifty, 769 series luminaires recessed in the timber clad ceiling were also specified to provide downlighting.
Sophy explained, "Critically, Sill were able to accommodate a number of special requests: the light fitting were finished in a RAL colour and gloss level of our choice; the brackets for the lights were made curved specifically to fix onto the columns and a variety of different lenses and glasses could have been used in the fitting, if required, which gave us some flexibility."
Sill was also specified because the simple 'non stylised' design of the fittings worked well with both the new and historic parts of the building. In addition, the company was able to produce a number of lighting plots, which helped the architects, engineers and client to decide on the right solution.
The new Refectory was awarded the Gold Medal at the 2004 Wood Awards and has set a benchmark for future phases.
