Sill Lighting was one of the main lighting manufacturers selected to bring the Eden Project alive after dark to attract locals and tourists in the winter season.Magical lighting was key to the winter season project, which also saw the building of a new structure to house events and a temporary ice rink. Speirs and Major was brought in to illuminate the ice rink and two biomes, to add effect lighting to the existing landscape and to provide a lighting strategy for future expansion plans.
"As it is a huge site, the challenge was to make an impact efficiently", explained Iain Ruxton, design associate at Speirs and Major, "we therefore chose a select few manufacturers that we could count on to provide a good price and that had the experience and were willing to get involved."
As the Eden project was its own contractor, it was also essential that selected manufacturers could ship significant volumes of kit quickly and directly to the Eden project and turn the project around in just over 5 months. "We didn't hesitate in specifying Sill as we know that product quality and service backup are always there. On this project, as ever, Sill went above and beyond our expectations", added Iain.
Sill's 494 projectors are used around the site to light the rock faces of the old clay pit in which Eden is built and to uplight the inside of the ice rink tent structure. In the biomes, its 020 series power projectors provide high intensity coloured accent lighting down into the space, exercising excellent thermal management to deal with 50°C high ambient temperatures at the top of the biomes. Sill also assisted in the specification, installation and focusing of the projectors with on–site visits.
