The new Juvenile Justice Centre in Northern Ireland is using over 500 Curie recessed downlighters from Whitecroft Lighting to provide a secure and comfortable environment for young offenders. Many of the fittings were modified to meet the specific requirements of the project.Located in Bangor, the centre has been constructed under a design and build contract to provide children and young people with a safe and secure environment, with a view to prevent re-offending behaviour and help their re-integration into society. To that end, the design brief required an environment that would be secure yet not as intimidating as a conventional prison.
The lighting was selected and installed by M&E contractors Harvey Group, who will maintain an ongoing relationship with the centre, managing facilities through its FM division. Ease of maintenance and energy efficiency were key considerations in the choice of Whitecroft's Curie fittings.
"Having worked with Whitecroft before, we were confident we would receive the quality of products as well as the ongoing service and support we required," explained Harvey Group's David Bennett. "As well as modifying the Curie fitting to meet our needs, Whitecroft fitted out a sample room for testing by the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) in the early stages of the project," he added.
Whitecroft's Curie luminaire is a non-modular recessed fitting designed to use T5 linear fluorescent lamps. For the Juvenile Justice Centre, the fittings were selected for use in the 48 en-suite rooms allocated to residents. These were specially modified to suit the apertures in the rooms, increase their vandal resistance and to allow access for maintenance through the ceiling from above. In this way, the lighting can be maintained without the need to enter the residents' rooms.
Curie luminaires have also been used in the common areas of the centre, in a combination of standard and emergency configurations, with night-light options where required. In selected areas, the lighting is controlled by presence detectors rather than on/off switches, in compliance with the specification of the NIO.
