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 | | BRIGHT START FOR HAMPSHIRE PUPILS | | | RIDI Lighting Ltd | | 09/07/2008 | | | RIDI provides intelligent lighting for optimum learning environment.
When Pinewood Infants School in Farnborough was all but destroyed by fire, Hampshire County Council appointed RIDI to provide a comprehensive lighting installation, helping Pinewood to offer a new school building with a high performance learning environment.
Working with Hampshire County Council’s multi award winning Architectural and Design Unit on its planning and design process from the outset, RIDI and lighting consultant RHB were able to support the council’s aim to provide a contemporary building design with a strong sustainability agenda, aiming for a BREEAM rating of ‘excellent’. The installation was completed by Reavey and Son Electrical of Southampton.
The council’s architects were able to take advantage of RIDI’s extensive range of lighting solutions and used a selection of suspended and recessed luminaires, alongside RIDI’s intelligent lighting control systems, specially designed to allow flexibility in lighting levels to match the variety of tasks performed at the school.
In the all important classroom areas, RIDI’s F-Line suspended luminaires were used in conjunction with downlighters set into the bulkheads. Fully enclosed in a slimline 25mm powder coated steel body is dimmable electronic ballasts driving twin T5 lamps, linked to a highly flexible dimmable control system. The luminaires were supplied with a matt-anodised aluminium micro-louvre so that the perfect balance between direct and indirect lighting could be achieved. Following the devastating fire at Pinewood, the F-Line’s integral 3-hour maintained emergency system was also a notable feature for the school.
As Mike Attard, managing director at RIDI UK explains, a great deal of attention was paid to creating the optimum learning environment:
“One of the main obstacles to overcome in the classroom is that of glare from the whiteboard. The use of a programmable control system allows for a number of luminaires to be dimmed when the whiteboard is in use, leaving only the most effective illumination focused on the board.”
In contrast to the school classrooms, the main hall was fitted with an alternative style suspended luminaire – the HRL pendant. With its multi-purpose function as the school’s music and drama venue, versatile and robust lighting is required to match the changing demands of the environment. RIDI’s HRL pendant, with its durable yet subtle aluminium body holding a fluted prismatic reflector, is ideal for a huge number of applications. With a range of fluorescent lamps from 26-120W and, again, RIDI’s integral 3-hour emergency control gear, the HRL was ideal for Pinewood’s hall.
Completing the learning areas of the school, Pinewood’s library has been effectively lit by a combination of the ultra-shallow 95mm recessed EBDF downlighter luminaires set into the bulkheads – perfect for when a decorative yet unobtrusive lighting component is required but where space is tight. The atmosphere in the library is completed with a linear T5 cove uplighting system with asymmetric reflectors to evenly project light across the ceiling. The uplighting effect also minimises shadowing around the bookcases.
Jim Alesbury, the consultant at RHB heading up the project, explains that the nature of the project allowed maximum flexibility:
“As a complete rebuild, Pinewood School allowed us a great deal of freedom in selecting components and the innovative design of the school meant that we could use a variety of RIDI’s products. We were able to offer a design that achieved optimum learning conditions as well as being as energy efficient as possible.”
An expert in designing effective and affordable lighting schemes for the education environment, RIDI offers a wide range of luminaires and controls. | |
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