A statement entrance for Britain's first ever business park
The challenge
We were honoured to play a role in the Stockley Park entrance regeneration. Built in the 1980s by leading British architects Fosters + Partners, Arup, Eric Parry and SOM, it is now home to over 30 businesses including Apple, GlaxoSmithKline and IBM.
Over the years, Stockley Park has developed a reputation as one of Europe’s premier business parks, occupying 150 acres with 25 buildings, which accommodate over 165,000 sqm of high quality offices. The new design brief was to create an entrance that reflected the prestige of the park’s clients and to complement the existing buildings. This involved developing four areas of lighting to work within the well detailed architectural scheme, based around two large 10m tall, 20 ton cast stone monoliths.
Clients and partners
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Client
RL-a Architects
Key project requirements
- The monoliths to either side of the entrance required an LED lighting array to give a controlled and professional appearance.
- LED illuminated letters, vertically down the leading edge of the monolith, to match the colour and brightness of the array.
- Lightboxes to provide additional lighting to the footpaths on either side of the entrance and framing the approach to the gatehouse.
- Functional lighting within the gatehouse to coordinate with the scheme.
- Integrate the lighting, wiring and electrical equipment within the cast stone.
The solution
The monoliths were manufactured in three pieces, with the head assembly weighing 6.5 tonnes, holding the lighting equipment. Working with the cast stone suppliers, we created a series of stainless steel tubes which were installed into the moulds with the reinforcement bar. The cast stone assemblies were then delivered to our factory to allow pull cords and cabling to be installed, feeding back to a specially designed electrical equipment housing, located within the top surface.
We created the LED array with a series of IP67 Iria Round Peco LED’s in Grade 316 stainless steel (Ø38mm) which push fit into the stainless steel tubes, sitting slightly recessed within the face. To complete the monoliths, the LED Illuminated letters were manufactured complete with a series of templates to help ensure they sat perfectly in their specially moulded recesses. Mechanical dimmers were fitted to allow the levels on the letters to be adjusted to match the LED array.
The LED light boxes were incorporated into a toughened glass face for increased durability. The back of the glass has white vinyl applied and is fitted with silicon into a white painted stainless steel light box, to create the overall effect. The drivers and connections are mounted on the back of the box and can be accessed through a cover plate set into the back of the cast stone maintaining the light box as a sealed enclosure to increase its IP rating.
The final result creates a powerful, statement entrance and delivers clarity and elegance to the finished scheme.
" We chose DW Windsor because of their commitment to creating a bespoke design with bespoke solutions. Their endeavour into making it work through testing and 1:1 modelling meant that we and the clients had confidence that the lightshow entering into the park would be successful and complete our vision. Their attitude throughout the project was professional and a pleasure "
Tamsin Landells, Partner, RL-a Architects