On the top floor, which houses Monsoon’s design studio, the lighting design echoes that of the floors below. The same direct/indirect T5 linear fluorescents on bus bars provide general illumination, but uplights are used to highlight the seesaw roof, whose triangular peaks crown the building and impart an even more pronounced warehouse feel to this space. In addition, the curtain wall’s full-height glazing allows an abundance of natural light into the studios, a boon to designers whose work benefits from its good color rendering.
Overall, the lighting design is much like the building itself—open and highly efficient. Thanks to natural light from the roof’s portholes over the atrium, daylight penetrates deep into each floor level. Mindful of energy issues, Hot designed the office lighting to approximately 300 lux, the lower end of U.K.-recommended illuminance levels. To conserve electricity, energy-efficient sources were employed throughout, passive infrared occupancy sensors are contained in the bus bar system on every floor, and daylight sensors monitor the atrium, stairs, and walkways. As Hot notes, “The client was keen to create an energy-efficient building, but we also wanted to push the design.” The result is a scheme that expends only 1.225 watts per square foot.
Other environmentally friendly strategies include the displacement ventilation system (cool air enters at the base of the building and displaces hot air as it rises and exits through the atrium), the use of the building’s exposed concrete structure’s thermal mass to stabilize internal temperatures, solar shading, a rainwater harvesting system, and an intelligent lighting control system, which is set to a program that varies depending on day, time, and occupancy levels. “The system is flexible enough to be reprogrammed in sections to meet the client’s requirements,” Hot says.
This level of efficiency also extends outside, where vertical louvers, together with a striped façade of low-E and yellow spandrel glass, reduce solar gain. Here, lighting is kept to a minimum. Ground-mounted uplights highlight the building’s structure, while the louvers are gently illuminated with luminaires that have both an uplight and a downlight component that also provide building perimeter circulation lighting. Because the landscape architects were eager to create a porch-like entrance that felt like a home, NDYLIGHT developed a chandelier made up of a cluster of white LED globes suspended at different heights. And to ensure that no energy is wasted, an astronomical time clock turns the lights on only at dusk.
“It was quite a challenge to create a lighting plan that met all of Monsoon’s requirements,” Hot explains. “The lighting design really had a big impact on what the building looks like.” And the completed building is a dramatic new headquarters that promises to bring urban renewal to Notting Hill’s once overlooked neighbor.
DETAILS
Project The Yellow Building, Monsoon Accessorize Headquarters, London
Client Monsoon Accessorize, London
Architect Allford Hall Monaghan Morris Architects, London
Lighting Designer NDYLIGHT, London
Landscape Architect MUF, London
Structural Engineers Adams Kara Taylor, London
Contractor Laing O’Rourke, Kent, England
Project Size 120,000 square feetProject Cost 32 million pounds
Lighting Installation Cost 1 million pounds
Watts Per Square Foot 1.225
Photographer Richard Leeney, London
Manufacturers / Applications
ACDC: High-output 4200K cold-cathode lighting builtinto ground-floor entrance canopy openings
Bega: External recessed metal halide downlights in entrance canopy
DAL: 70W/35W metal halide spotlight with uplight and downlight component fixed to base of vertical louverson building façade
ERCO: Lightcast 35W metal halide G12 downlights inatrium; Optec 35W metal halide G12 track-mounted spotlights for corridors and elevator lobbies, and spotlight wallwasher for office perimeter walls; Optec 70Wmetal halide G12 track-mounted spotlights for gallery lighting and atrium uplighting; Stella 70W metal halide G12 track-mounted spotlight with sculpture lens foratrium stairway and bridge landings; Stella 150W G12 track-mounted spotlight with sculpture lens for atrium floor lighting; 230V suspended three-circuit lighting track connected to local DALI phase dimmer module in open-plan office areas
EncapSulite: 14W 3000K T5 linear fluorescent luminaire integrated into atrium stairway balustradei
Guzzini: In-ground recessed 35W T5 linear florescent uplights at building entrance lobby
Mike Stoane Lighting: Custom-designed LEDchandelier at building entrance canopy
Modular: Suspended 39W T5 fluorescent square downlights in ground-floor gallery area