PublicScreen uses LEDs to revive office space

Entrance Nestling amongst anonymous doorways in the heart of London’s historic Soho is number 41–44 Great Windmill Street. From the street it is hard to appreciate the scale of what lies behind the glass doors of what was once a small doorway and a dowdy sandwich bar.

This has now been replaced by a stunning five-floor office space, complete with a full-height glazed internal atrium, offering the occupant’s views right across London’s West End.

PublicScreen & Lightsystem Ltd was asked to exercise its specialized lighting knowledge and recommend the LED fixtures most suitable for ensuring that the contemporary design was not compromised in any way.

Powerglass chandelier This was achieved by using a number of different LED fixtures. These included simple single-head Luxeon units providing an attractive point source of light for the glass walkways – also giving the additional benefit of creating a striking illumination on the underside of the balustrade.

The most striking feature of the project was the use of LED Powerglass (supplied by Germany's Glas Platz) to form a contemporary chandelier in the atrium. This takes the form of eight panels of laminated glass; each panel is fitted with 80 white LEDs which are bonded into the panel without wires, to give the effect that the small points of light are suspended in mid-air.

Over the course of its two-year involvement in this project, PublicScreen & Lightsystem Ltd developed a close working relationship with both the architect and the electrical contractor. One benefit of this came when it was discovered that there was a potential shortage of mains power available for the project. Requesting a second supply anywhere in central London is always very expensive.

By applying its knowledge of low-power-consumption lighting, PublicScreen was still able to provide the complete lighting package for the atrium and access areas.

The project also benefited from the use of surface-mount LED units installed in the walls to provide low level accent lighting on the stair landings. Five, 70-watt metal halide narrow beam spots provide illumination for the back wall behind the reception desk.

A number of adjustable three-head white Luxeon units have been used to illuminate the external entrance, first floor landing and pictures on the entrance walls. In addition, the wall-mounted illumination was provided by a combination of square and oblong fluorescent units, some of which were custom-made to provide the emergency back-up systems required.