26 Sep Lighting Solutions For Squillace Architects
Squillace Architects is a young and dynamic architecture and interior design Sydney firm who moved to the Surrey Hills Francis De Sales and Presbytery church. The adaptive reuse of the church was the new corporate headquarters for the 20 plus creatives. The historical conversion of the former building was completed in 2018 and needed to function as an office, and collaborative space for the growing team.
The firm entirely re-imagined the interior working space allowing the existing fabric and layers of history to inform the new design.
The creative and professional office hub had natural light streaming through its stained glassed windows but this was not enough for a contemporary office lighting solution. In the planning process, we worked with Squillace Architects to solve the issue of effectively lighting the large and airy space. Our challenge was to artfully design lighting in precision locations in the office space to comfortably illuminate the inhabitants.
Lighting in an office environment needs to have as much natural light as possible and is found to be one of the most important factors in employee well-being. It affects productivity, motivation and relaxation. Workers are in these offices for more than eight hours a day and need the lighting to stimulate a range of emotions from relaxed to super alert. It also accounts for 30% of energy bills.
“The selection of lighting will drastically alter the characteristics of the space. One could choose understated or concealed light sources to create a space where indirect and diffused lighting, and its reflection and shadows on the built forms, create the desired effect. On the other hand, maybe space calls for one or more ‘special pieces’, where the lighting is also about the architecture of the light source itself. Both of these scenarios are effective and have their own application. Lighting solutions are an integral part of the design of a space, it must be well considered as the space will not realise its full potential without a well thought and thorough lighting design,” says Vince.
Solution
The modelling, simulation was organised and delivered from Italy in a four week period.
Together with the technical office of Luciferos in Italy, we set up new lighting standards for this open plan office area, providing the correct lighting levels. The ambient wall of LED, low energy lights were specified and light simulations modeled to measure the right lighting levels for the office space. This was a happy creative medium between too many lights and not being effective; that way the fixture is harmonious with the scale of the space without overpowering from an aesthetic point of view.
The above is an example of the renders created to model and test the lighting levels and systems for the ambient wall. Gineico Lighting offers this service to allow you to establish the technically correct lighting levels for a space. Typically for precision and detailed work the common light level is 500 – 1000 lux, while 100 – 300 lux is required for normal activities. 130 lux was selected for each staff member in combination with the use of a task light over the individual work area.
The File 2 Sistema, custom up-light with a prismatic diffuser was selected throughout the church as we wanted a lighting system in place that had maximum impact with minimum energy consumption. The clever placement of the lights minimised the amount of lighting required. In selecting this luminaire we also looked at the aesthetic appeal of the building, an aspect particularly important in the illumination of office environments.
A deconstructed Christian crucifix for the nave of the church was created and installed using the Luciferos ‘Minifile LED Modular’. The crucifix is suspended over the board room table.
Luciferos ‘Phar’ 120mm diameter professional spotlights were used in the nave to up-light the architectural ceiling features.
Vince: Very suitable high-quality fittings that are compatible with our design approach, which as you can gather is minimal, simple, indirect lighting with the odd piece. I like the compatibility with our approach to lighting.