Spring 2007 saw the opening of Grand Arcade, a new £120m shopping centre in Wigan. Developed by property company, Modus, this 45,000 sq/m mixed use regeneration scheme includes retail, leisure, residential and community space – and claims to be the UK's first ‘carbon neutral' shopping centre. Grand Arcade's extensive lighting scheme was designed by Concord Lighting, working in collaboration with NRN Design consultants and Operon consultants. The project's signature lighting feature is a special LED light sculpture, dubbed the 'exploding atom', suspended on four stainless steel cables in the central atrium. This huge luminaire is 4.6 metres across and was designed and produced by Concord's Custom Product Division.
Its central component, a 660mm diameter polished stainless steel hollow sphere, contains the control gear for 32 x RGB 3x1W LED clusters with narrow 8° optics. These create internal illumination for the sculpture's radiating asymmetric ‘spikes' - 44mm diameter polycarbonate tubes up to 2 metres long, which are fitted with light-transmitting dichroic film and stainless steel caps. Ever-changing full-colour sequences are controlled by three synchronised, programmable three-channel drivers.
A number of other Concord luminaires were utilised elsewhere in this exciting new retail complex, including two-way Simes Slot bi-directional, with 35W metal halide, mounted on wall sections between the shop fronts, providing ambient circulation lighting throughout the development. At first floor level these are supplemented by powerful 70W CDM-T wide beam Equinox downlights mounted in the sloping soffit, eight metres above the floor. In addition a number of four-beam Simes Blitz fittings create decorative lighting effects on the walls of the main stairs.
In other mall areas, rows of track-mounted TeQ spotlights on the ceilings add extra illumination to shop window displays, while ceiling-recessed Channel fluorescent wall-washers, and Britespot downlights, provide bright, safe lighting levels at the entrances points.
