Situated in an 11,000 sq ft four storey Grade II listed Georgian townhouse formally the Lefevre gallery, London's Stella McCartney store is a bold statement from interior designers Universal Design Studio and lighting designers Into Lighting Design.

The project was not without its problems as Universal was constrained by the listing, so the strategy was to understand the historic build up and remodel the fabric. Taking key elements such as the skylight and 'jack' arches at the rear, Universal has re-introduced them in a re-working. The theme 'nature abstracted' developed for the New York store has been modified further and motifs of landscape reoccur within some of the details of the interior elements.

As the structure of the building is basically retained the lighting solution had to relate to the individual rooms and the constraints of the Georgian architecture. The illumination of each room has been carefully designed to reflect the nature of the product; the use of the space and the interior design finishes. Aside from the ambient and accent illumination there has been considerable detailing of the internal illumination of the marquetry wall and other elements of the unitary.

Bespoke light chandeliers, designed by Barber Osgerby and developed by Into, signature the first floor retail areas. The fixtures were manufactured by Profile Lighting and incorporate dimmable cold cathode providing direct and indirect illumination. The first floor and ground floor showrooms required a special solution for accent illumination due to the ceiling voids available. Semi-recessed low voltage directional luminaries were designed as a variant from Mike Stoane Lighting. The relatively high ceilings on both floors called for good glare control so the fixtures were equipped with honeycombe filters. Fixture tilt is set through locking nuts so that the desired lighting effect is maintained.

The interiors benefit from a bespoke lighting control system, manufactured by Lutron, that allows the client to adapt the lighting in all rooms to suit the time of day or the mood of the occasion. The window illumination is controlled and sequenced so that the direction and emphasis of the light alters from the horizontal plane to the vertical plane revealing differing aspects of the window sets. Vertical slots were created in wall finishes to conceal the directional lights manufactured by Mike Stoane.

The exterior of the building has been enhanced by 10 x 600mm modules of the Crescent Lighting Colourline linear colour change LED luminaries that illuminate the window reveals with a specific subtle colour of light or sequence through a number of subtle colours. Two smaller rooms display the shoe and perfume collections. The perfume room is dominated by two freestanding glass display units where the perfume bottles are displayed. Natural light is obscured with window shutters and all the finishes are dark. Therefore as the ambient light and reflected light are controlled, fibre optic narrow beam spotlights from UFO provide striking illumination of the perfume bottles.

The shoe room has a centre piece circular table that is illuminated by ceiling mounted low voltage spotlights and the general ambience is provided by a bespoke glass chandelier. The main staircase is flood with natural light from a new roof light. The design of the artificial illumination of the space was a challenge as the architecture did not allow traditional forms of illumination and consideration had to be given to the amount of daylight entering the space.

Daylight studies were undertaken to simulate the effect and amount of daylight in a virtual computer mock up and as a result it was decided to create a light box along the length of the void and to the underside of the soffit at the second floor balcony level.

Barisol stretched ceiling material was specified that was back lit with dimmable fluorescent lamps providing a balance to the visual brightness created by the roof light that adjusts according to the level of the natural light.

technical information

Lighting Design: Into Lighting Design Lighting Solutions
Ground & First Floor: 47 x Mike Stoane 240v recessed adjustable downlight, 12 x Mike Stoane track mounted adjustable 100w/12v spotlight, 2 x Mike Stoane surface mounted low profile 3000mm track, 2 x Mike Stoane vertically mounted 240v recessed adjustable spotlight, 6 x Erco 240v recessed fixed downlight, 8 x Erco 12v adjustable baffled downlight, 6 x Erco 12v recessed low voltage downlight, 4 x Erco recessed square 20w low voltage emergency luminaire, 2 x UFO 240v fibre optic projector, 23 x Modular 12v recessed low voltage downlight, 1 x Modular 12v twin surface mounted AR111 spotlight, 2 x Tornado Lighting wall mounted compact fluorescent

Second floor: 15 x Erco 12v recessed low voltage downlight, 11 x Commercial Lighting 240v 2x26 recessed compact fluorescent downlight

Third floor: 12 x Erco 12v recessed low voltage downlight, 1 x Erco 240v recessed adjustable downlight, 8 x Fitzgerald Lighting 240v 1500mm 35w surface mounted T5 fluorescent batten, 5 x Targetti 240v recessed low level wall light, 5 x Concord recessed 10w emergency downlighter

Marquetry wall & changing rooms: 8 x Fitzgerald Lighting 240v 1500mm 35w surface mounted T5 fluorescent batten; 4 x Osram 240v 1565mm 35w terry clip mounted T5 fluorescent; 2 x UFO 240v fibre optic projector

Cabinet lighting: 14 x Osram T5 8w 830 lamp
Draw lighting: 10 x Osram T5 14w 830 lamp
Exterior: 10 x Crescent Lighting 240v surface mounted 600mm LED/RGB uplight Dimming: Lutron

information: www.into.co.uk