KSLD Received The First Prize For Lighting Design At The Codega Awards 2018

Earlier this month KSLD received the first prize for Lighting Design at the Codega Awards 2018. The award was given for the Scottish Parliament Debating Chamber project.

“We are honoured to receive the First Prize in the Codega awards for the Scottish Parliament Debating Chamber. This ambitious project has been very successful in achieving the design goals including energy saving, long life and reliability as well as being a much appreciated improvement in the quality of light. The appearance and story of the fittings has also been broadly appreciated by the staff and members of the Scottish Parliament and features in the public tours of the building. The whole KSLD team involved in the project appreciate the recognition the debating chamber has achieved in the Codega Awards and are very proud of the scheme and the associated daylighting design for the chamber.” Kevan Shaw

The Debating Chamber is the heart of and reason for the Scottish Parliament building. During parliamentary business, it effectively functions as a TV studio. At other times it is presented to visitors as a fine architectural space.

The new lighting uses specially designed LED light guide fittings to provide a general field of soft light when the parliament is not sitting, casting more light into the ceiling, articulating the amazing structure of the chamber. LED spotlights provide front fill to members in the chamber during broadcasting only.

The project includes daylight management, to prevent direct sunlight ingress from the west facade. A full DALI control system manages lighting for different functions and times of day. Frosted acrylic louvres to the west glazing allow adequate daylight, but reduce solar contrast. Light levels are reduced significantly for tours and other business, saving energy but expressing the form of the building clearly. Energy in use has been calculated to be approximately 40% of that used by the original scheme. It has a design life of 25 years and requires minimal maintenance.

The light fitting shape reflects the plan-form of the chamber, and the light guide extractors are the graphic figures used elsewhere in the space. The quantity of graphic figures represents the number of sitting MSPs. The layout and height settings allow the fittings to appear randomly placed in the complex ceiling structure, yet they achieve the required lighting distribution.

Daylight louvre design was developed through time lapse photography and 3D modelling of the architecture. Iterative modelling of the louvres compared to the captured time lapse determined optimal angles and spacing to exclude direct sunlight, but retain effective daylighting within this magnificent space.

Project team:

Client: Scottish Parliament Corporate Body
Architect: Lee Boyd Ltd
Structural Engineer: Will Rudd Davidson
Electrical Engineer: Harley Haddow
Bespoke pendant and select spotlights manufacturer: Mike Stoane Lighting
Light Sources: LED in fittings from Mike Stoane Lighting, Lightnet, AlphaLED, LightGraphix
Lighting Controls: Lutron, EldoLED