Vector suspended direct/indirect luminaires from Whitecroft Lighting have been used to create a bright, cheerful ambiance in teaching spaces at the new South East Essex College in Southend.The striking new 26,500m2 college building, which teaches 13000, has created a new landmark in Southend, as well as setting a new standard for further education buildings. Lighting, designed by Fulcrum Consulting, formed a key element in the design scheme and was vital in achieving a learning-friendly environment in the teaching spaces.
There are seven floors of teaching spaces in the college, each divided into 14.5m wide, 450m2 column-free modules. Each floor has six of these large open plan spaces, where groups of students and teachers gather in an informal setting – in keeping with the college's desire to create a more relaxed learning environment. The spaces are also highly flexible, as partitions can be used to either link spaces or sub-divide them into smaller areas.
Lighting the teaching spaces required an equally flexible solution and Whitecroft's Vector suspended direct/indirect luminaires were selected, each fitted with a single 35W linear fluorescent light source. The ceilings in the teaching spaces consist of highly reflective, exposed concrete decking, making them ideal to reflect indirect light back into the space.
The inherent versatility of Vector allows different proportions of direct and indirect lighting, and at South East Essex College they are configured to provide 70% direct downlighting and 30% uplighting.
"A higher indirect component to reflect more light from the ceiling would have made the rooms appear brighter but this higher reflective component would have made it more difficult to subdivide the spaces," explain Fulcrum's Bea Etayo. "The 70/30 split proved to be the best ratio for providing the flexibility required by the college while ensuring an illuminance of 350 lux on the working plane," she continued.
Additional flexibility in the teaching areas is achieved by controlling the rows of fluorescent luminaires in three blocks, each switched independently. This enables lighting in unused areas to be switched off without affecting light levels in occupied spaces.
