Seamless staircase lighting solution at the Maritime Centre of Excellence
The challenge
Grimshaw Architects had a requirement for a visually seamless staircase lighting solution at the Maritime Centre of Excellence; the redevelopment of this building was part of a wider project across the University of Southampton. The staircase lighting solution was required to fit in with the maritime theme of the building, as well as to provide localised lighting where it was needed, and make maintenance of the solution as easy as possible.
Clients and partners
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Client
Grimshaw Architects
The solution
This first phase of a wider redevelopment at the university has transformed the Boldrewood campus and has a strong maritime theme – in keeping with Southampton’s status as an international maritime city. This is reinforced by the steel and wooden structure of the staircase, which is perfectly lit by our Garda LED handrail.
The Garda LED handrails have been tapped into the steel panels, lining the staircase to give the appearance of a single structure. Each length of Garda handrail is fed from transformers located in the floor of each landing, where there are also battery packs to provide three-hour emergency lighting. Each transformer supplies approximately 40m of handrail.
On the staircase, the side-emitting beam angle provides localised lighting where it’s needed with minimal light spill to adjacent areas. The use of LED light sources ensures high energy efficiency, while a lifetime of 60,000 hours (to 70% output) delivers significant savings in maintenance costs.