Harry Barnitt from Zumtobel Staff argues that innovative office lighting and the opportunity to specify for the end user, not the developer, is playing a pivotal role in the success of the Docklands regeneration...

Attracting some of the largest and most influential names in world banking and finance to an area of abandoned docks is no mean feat and the reconstruction of the Docklands area in London must rank as one of the most dramatic and successful urban regeneration projects in European history.

Situated seven miles East of the City of London, Docklands provided a geographically convenient alternative to the traditional City home for banking, but geography alone was never going to be enough. New transport links, grand architecture and a vibrant collection of retail and entertainment venues have also been necessary to bring in major corporations who require buildings of a scale and grandeur to reflect their own corporate aspirations.

The gradual development of the area involves a programme in which buildings are generally constructed for a specific tenant organisation. The advantage of this process is that the fit-out can be designed to the specification of the users of the building, rather than the developer. Nowhere is the effect of this regime more evident than in the specification of the lighting.

Typically a developer building a speculative office building will install lighting at the lowest possible cost. In the UK this tends to mean the use of recessed louvred downlights. Rows of such luminaires across a ceiling space produce a very low quality lighting environment, but one which has historically been considered acceptable because louvred downlights are supposed to control the problem of reflectance and glare on computer screens.

Possibly in the 1980s and early 1990s when the most commonly used computers employed curved, glass fronted Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) screens there may have been some justification for this point of view. Even then computer screens varied from manufacturer to manufacturer and the specification of "Category 2" lighting was usually simply shorthand for the lowest acceptable lighting standard.

In Docklands, where the tenant is likely to be involved in the specification of the lighting there is very little recessed louvred lighting to be seen. Brian Teale, Build and Fit Out Director for Barclays Bank, faced with the suggestion that louvred downlighting should be used as the standard specification for his new headquarters building was unequivocal in his reaction. "It was never going to be an option. It is visually unexciting and looks like old technology - you are left with a dark and gloomy ceiling that is particularly unappealing in large open plan office areas. I wanted something that would enhance the space in design terms and wasn't just a lighting solution based on a theoretical calculation of the lumens per square foot."

Looks were clearly important, and so was functionality. Brian Teale refers also to the objective of achieving a very high quality user experience for the building both in the public spaces and throughout all the office areas. Reviewing a number of different luminaire options, the issue of computer screen reflectance became a priority.

The computers to be used in the new building use Flat Panel Displays (FPDs), and the final deciding factor in the type of luminaire to be used related to its compatibility with this screen type. Since computer manufacturers do not provide information on the reflectance of their screens the only way to objectively assess the impact of lighting is to test the screens.

An international standard (BS EN ISO 29241) describes a process by which this testing can be carried out, and in the UK Zumtobel Staff lighting is the only company currently carrying out testing to this standard. Samples of the screens to be used in the Barclays building were therefore dispatched to Zumtobel Staff's UK head office and the test results were used to support Barclays' preferred lighting scheme.

This type of testing procedure is particularly important in the UK as there is no prescriptive standard to identify a universally acceptable lighting scheme. Under the most recent lighting guidance (the 2001 revision of CIBSE's Lighting Guide 3) some suggested parameters are laid down, but lighting designers are free to work outside of these if they can produce evidence to support their schemes. In the Barclays example the screens were tested and found to be compatible with Barclays preferred luminaire design: A Mellowlight from Zumtobel Staff.

This particular luminaire was chosen partly for the fact that it enjoys a stylish contemporary aesthetic in its own right, but also because the luminaire is designed to throw light upwards into the recessed reflector as well as down onto the working plane. The result is that the ceiling is brightened, giving the impression of a bright, high and spacious working area.

In this instance cost was not the overriding factor - the experience of the staff and their impression of their working environment is the key consideration: an order of priority that is common for building occupants but very rare for developers.

While the prestige and aesthetic appeal of the working environment is considered a priority for general office space, in high-pressure environments such as dealer floors the single overriding consideration is the concentration and comfort of the staff.

Typically consisting of large rooms containing row upon row of computer screens dealer floors provide a particular challenge for the lighting designer. The consequences of a single figure mis-read or misunderstood because of a distracting glare on a screen are simply unacceptable and in these spaces the Aero fitting from Zumtobel Staff has become a widely accepted solution. The graceful and elegant Aero suspended fitting is perfect for intensive computer use because the lamps are completely shielded from direct view. Housed in the aluminium outer frame of the luminaire, the lamps distribute their light via the revolutionary Waveguide panel producing a uniquely diffuse lighting which completely removes the possibility of reflections from the computer screen.

In the Lehman Brothers building the dealer floor alone was fitted with four thousand Aero luminaires, suspended right across the ceiling space with geometrically perfect precision. The solution provides even, balanced lighting throughout the day and night. In this instance a Luxmate lighting control system also regulates each luminaire individually.

It would be fair to say that Aero represents a pinnacle of lighting product design. It is unlikely to be used throughout a thirty-floor office building, but Zumtobel Staff has gained many specifications in Docklands through its willingness to amend standard production luminaire designs to produce special variations for individual contracts.

The scale of the development in the Docklands area is awe-inspiring. In just twenty years the area has established itself as a focal point of international finance and the scale and quality of the buildings is a testament to the prestige of the companies who have moved there. In lighting terms many of the buildings provide object lessons in good lighting design and show just what can be achieved if the specification is driven by a client whose chief objective is the quality of the finished scheme coupled with the positive impact this can have on people who work within the environment.

www.zumtobelstaff.com