Long gone are the days of bland educational facilities and the boring common areas in them. We all know the value in recharging the batteries with a little bit of fun intermingled with our study or work day. Scott Meek and the team at Phillips/Pilkington architects certainly understand this and with the help of HI Lighting and Digilin achieved a functional and elegant solution to the lighting element of the new Student Hub at the Uni of SA.
The spaces are divided into a number of different rooms and study nooks for group or personal study, an open plan recreation area and an adjoining theatrette where students can kick back in recliners and catch up on the latest TV and film. The space above the common area is occupied by a network of frames that form an industrial looking grid, linear fittings are attached to this frame on both levels and at varying perpendicular angles. The large frame then becomes an interesting piece in itself as well as providing suitable light levels for the indoor games in the area.
“The concept of making an industrial frame complete with randomly placed fittings brings a raw industrial look to the room” outlined Scott. “It also provides the feeling that the ceiling level is consistent across the width of the common area as well as helping disguise AC services above.” The edge of the common area is defined my another custom cut strip of LED which follows and lights the interesting shape of bench seat, ideal to perch on for a quick gathering or to read the paper. Adjacent to the common area is a theatrette complete with comfy recliners. Scott turned the lighting on its head in this space (no pun intended), with 99 vertically hung custom LED strips to create an array of pendants hung in a grid above the seats.
“Although the theatrette is connected to the rest of the open plan space, I wanted to define it in a different way to create the feeling you were in a different room. Lighting was an interesting way to do this; the space above the general area is predominantly made up of horizontal lines, the space above the theatre is defined by vertical lines, this helps define the more narrow space.”
The Digilin lighting was supplied by HI Lighting SA, with Brett Brown assisting in product selection, design and supply. Brett pushed Digilin for the project as he knew that any ideas that Scott could come up with could be met with custom solutions using quality products.
