Light Alley at Plantation Place

Lighting Technology Projects has supplied 102 Color Kinetics ColorBlast 12 LED fixtures for an eye-catching 41 metre long by 6 metre high illuminated glass ‘art wall’, at Plantation Place. This is part of a new office development in the heart of the historic City of London. The public art work was commissioned from UK artist Simon Patterson.

The light wall runs along the newly created Plantation Lane that divides the two halves of the Plantation Place building. It runs from Christopher Wren’s Grade I listed St Margaret Patten’s Church to the west of the development, to Mincing Lane in the east.

LTP’s Terry Reeves’ was approached by electrical contractors Haden Young, and architects/engineers Arup to facilitate sourcing of the fixtures as specified. Reeves collaborated on the engineering elements with Arup’s David Hymas, which included producing a full scale mock up demonstration of a section of the wall, so they could test different lightsources before making their final choice.

The ColorBlast was selected for its even wash characteristics, its durability and its low maintenance and running cost factors. Fifty-one ColorBlasts shine up from the base of the 1 metre wide wall, evenly spaced along its length, and 51 are inset along the top, beaming down. They were programmed by Reeves using CK’s ColorPlay authoring software. The standard sequence includes a slow full spectrum sweep along the rows of fixtures. Control is via one of CK’s iPlayer 2 compact multiple show storage and playback systems, specially developed for their digital lighting products. The fixtures illuminate a sepia tinted photographic etching of the dark side of the moon that runs lengthways along the wall, picking out its casting onto the glass fascias, creating shadows, contrasts and producing an almost hallucinogenic 3D effect when combined with the image.

The feature wall is proving a great hit, and is fast becoming a popular after-dark public attraction in its own right.

The building is operated by British Land Securities, and Bovis Lend Lease were the principal contractors. The wall itself was constructed by German-based construction firm Gartners.