Whitecroft Lighting's expertise in designing and manufacturing bespoke luminaires has been used to great effect at the new National Assembly of Wales building in Cardiff Bay. The specially designed suspended direct/indirect luminaires, used through most of the building, have enabled a clean, stylish lighting solution that combines high performance with low cost of ownership.The new 5,300m2 building houses a debating chamber, several committee rooms, offices, ancillary areas and public areas. It has been designed to make minimum use of energy and incorporates a range of innovative technologies to combine comfort, ease of use and energy efficiency.
This is clearly evidenced in the design of the lighting, particularly the suspended luminaires produced by Whitecroft working closely with main contractor Taylor Woodrow, architects Richard Rogers Partnership, consulting engineers BDSP Partnership and MJN Colston, the Mechanical & Electrical Installation Contractors.
The suspended luminaires are mounted in continuous rows in offices, committee rooms, information points, public viewing areas, internal courtyards and translator and sound booths. Mounted discreetly within infill panels in the lighting system are also smoke detectors, PA speakers, cameras and occupancy detectors, enabling the designers to maintain a clean, uncluttered soffit.
Each luminaire uses T5 fluorescent light sources in single or twin configurations, with symmetrical or asymmetrical light distributions to suit the needs of each space. In areas such as the tea room, where a warmer light is sometimes required, the fitting also incorporate low voltage halogen downlighters. Uplighting and downlighting in each luminaire are switched separately to provide even greater flexibility.
In this way, the design team has been able to meet the varied lighting requirements of each space with a homogenous luminaire design.
A key consideration in the design of the building was to make effective use of natural daylight via roof lights and vertical glazing, so the luminaires are linked via DALI ballasts to a central daylight sensor located on the roof. This arrangement enables the lighting to be dimmed when sufficient daylight enters the spaces, and for the lighting to be increased when blinds on the roof lights are activated to reduce glare.
In addition, each luminaire is also fitted with a PIR sensor so that the lighting can be controlled in relation to occupancy.
Provision has also been made for users to select different lighting scenes, with an emphasis on encouraging use of the most efficient settings. "In all of the spaces, the default scene is always daylight linked lighting," explained Matthew Winter of BDSP. "Then people can choose to adjust the lighting by varying the proportions of uplighting and downlighting, if they wish," he added.
Because of the high level of services integration and with the project having to be delivered on time and within budget, Whitecroft took a pro-active role in working with other members of the design and construction team to facilitate progress within the schedule.
Once architectural requirements, consultants' specifications, safety and security details had been pulled together, Whitecroft produced a coherent set of working drawing layouts which all members of the design team could work from. This had the benefit that the evolving design was available to the production team so that downstream manufacturing problems were eliminated.
