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Project: Southmeads Hospital
Work has completed on the new L&R and Pathology Buildings at the Southmeads site in Bristol.
Light Bureau worked on lighting the circulation areas of both buildings in close cooperation with Avanti Architects, specialists in the healthcare sector and proven innovators who show that this market can deliver stimulating and well designed buildings
Both buildings centre around an atrium; the pathology building is all working space for the pathologists based there whilst the L&R building is a larger space for light, circulation and informal meetings.
The lighting design was considered crucial to the architect, but there was no fee allocated for this important element, thus input was actually funded from the arts budget. Due to the way that PFI projects are delivered, Light Bureau were only retained to a Schematic level of design, after which the project was handed to the implementation team of design contractor.
The design had to be robust in order to withstand the specification changes which are common on projects of this type; details such as the atrium underlit benches, the discrete profiles over the windows opening on the atrium space and the low level floor washlights to galleries were critical design elements for Light Bureau and these have been retained in the final product.
Light Bureau were adamant that the lighting be intelligently switched; the CDM-T gimbals accessible at first floor gallery level aimed at the base of the atrium are intended specifically to reinforce daylight on dull days, but switched off after typical working hours so that only the fluorescent details are functioning for way-finding to assist late night workers or students. By this control the atrium and galleries are also more atmospheric and calm in the evenings.
The client's response to the buildings and to the lighting is enthusiastic; the L&R building manager stated that the atrium space is especially nice after dusk.
Architect: Avanti Architects
Photography by:
(1) Claudia Bloom
Southmeads Hospital in the press:
Architecture Today