Location
Chester, UK
Status
Ongoing – commenced 2016
Client
Cheshire West & Chester Council
Architect
ACME
Landscape
Vogt Landscape Architects
Access
David Bonnett Associates
As part of Chester's £300m investment into the city centre revitalisation, SEAM is providing lighting design services for ACME's ambitious vision for a vibrant retail-led mixed-use development. Planning was awarded in September 2016. Working together with multiple architects and separate design teams, SEAM has provided lighting design services that work to create cohesiveness across the site while featuring the unique characteristics of the various architectural designs. The first phase of works comprises a new cinema and theatre district.
Images
ACME
Location
Cairo, Egypt
Date
2009–ongoing
Client
Rooya Group
Architect
Zaha Hadid Architects
Landscape
GROSS MAX
Wayfinding
SpaceAgency
SEAM’s unique lighting design solutions support the signature architectural identity of this expansive masterplanned mixed-use development in Cairo. Comprising 18 corporate towers, a luxury hotel, two levels of underground car parking, and a landscaped public realm with five retail clusters, the extensive 21-hectare site is set to become a regional economic and cultural hub.
SEAM has designed the lighting for all public areas, including the feature facades and atria of all towers, plus facade lighting for the five-star hotel. The intricate centralised landscape ‘The Delta’ additionally provides the opportunity to integrate lighting into landscape design and develop intuitive wayfinding strategies with the use of lighting and bespoke signage.
The lighting strategy for Stone Towers starts at the urban scale – understanding the multiple identities of a large mixed-use development, its varying perceptions on approach, and the complex movements – and proceeds through a hierarchy of architectural spatial systems that encompass the entirety of the site. While achieving aesthetic fluidity, SEAM’s lighting carefully considers the complex dynamics of the various participants through the site, supporting these dynamic relationships functionally through light.
Images
Zaha Hadid Architects
SEAM Design
Location
London, UK
Status
RIBA Stage 1 complete – 2017
Client
City of London Corporation
Partners
Barbican Centre
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
London Symphony Orchestra
Museum of London
Architect
Fluid Architecture
Community engagement
Soundings
This 45-hectare site spans nearly a mile between London’s Moorgate and Farringdon metro stations, encompassing the brutalist Barbican estate and industrial Smithfield market area. This City of London enclave features a vibrant mix of ancient and modern architecture, with Roman walls and medieval churches sitting amidst new railway infrastructure, office towers and apartment blocks. However a fragmented multi-level public realm creates complex navigation and disparate pedestrian experience.
The Culture Mile initiative aspires to unify this diverse district into a singular cultural destination, introducing a cohesive pedestrian environment activated with arts programming. The comprehensive development strategy includes architectural lighting design expertise by SEAM to bring the urban realm to life at night.
An urban lighting audit by SEAM led to proposals for key enhancements to circulation and placemaking. Illumination to vertical connections draws activation to the Barbican’s podium levels, while prominent concrete surfaces host timely digital projections to signal events programmes from the world-leading cultural institutions clustered here.
Proposals for strategic facade lighting reveal the architectural beauty of the historic Smithfield Market at night, transforming its presence from an industrial worksite to a key district landmark. From brutalist concrete streetscapes and Victorian listed buildings, the unique textures and details of the rich local architectural palette are highlighted to offer orientation and navigation. The goal is a clear strategy for strong civic identity and local character to emerge.
The study identifies realistic and affordable ways to make the area more accessible and enjoyable for its workers, residents and visitors, while raising local business revenue, and elevating the City of London’s global profile as a destination for culture.
Images
SEAM Design