Situated in the heart of London, the Grade I listed Southbank Centre has been a beacon for arts and culture for over 70 years and is home to Queen Elizabeth Hall, Royal Festival Hall and the Hayward Gallery. Standing proudly as a brutalist icon, the Queen Elizabeth Hall is a prominent feature and popular destination on the banks of the river Thames. Therefore, the building required a stunning and eye-catching external lighting solution that would illuminate its façade, capture attention and exemplify its status within the city’s skyline.
Although already equipped with external lighting capabilities, the venue wanted to adopt the latest technology to ensure a more reliable, adaptable and consistent system that would be capable of delivering bold, vibrant and dynamic output. Additionally, it would need to facilitate a colourful showcase that could be easily customised to relevant themes, special occasions and cultural events.
Having continued to partner with the Southbank Centre across all three of their venues, White Light (WL) were once again brought on board to assist with providing a technical solution to update the existing lighting that had been previously installed by the WL team over 12 years prior.
The project involved replacing all light fixtures, as well as upgrading the cabling infrastructure and control system, also including the integration of mains, data and DMX cabling. A key component of the specification stated that all bracketry be re-used, outlining that any additional brackets be identically matched and sourced from the original supplier to ensure a consistent finish throughout.
Utilising the advanced design and rock-solid reliability of Color Kinetics, the new lighting comprised a range of 4ft and 1ft Graze Compact Powercore luminaires with intelligent RGBW for exceptional quality. With innovative optical design features, this high-performance linear luminaire with low-profile design fits seamlessly within the structure to draw focus and define the unique elements of this distinct building.
Due to the venue’s consistently busy programme, onsite works required comprehensive planning to ensure the WL team operated around any hosted events and film screenings, as the venue remained open and fully active to the public both day and night, seven days a week.
Substantial coordination was imperative throughout the duration of the project, due to the nature of the install and resulting working at height considerations. A Mansafe system and a specialist team of riggers were implemented for a large portion of the integration, which demanded continuous collaboration with the ground teams, to ensure that walkways and public areas were cordoned off when appropriate.
The weather conditions also influenced the schedule and dictated work activity, as it was mandated that the team would not be permitted to work on the roof should the wind levels escalate beyond a specified value. The team were required to take multiple anemometer readings each day to assess wind speed, which posed a significant contributing factor towards the logistics and working plans particularly as the project took place during the winter months. However the WL team always remained flexible in order to maintain progress and redirect focus towards other tasks that could be accomplished inside the building.
Following this lighting transformation, the venue’s facade now benefits from improved colour rendition and consistency; enhanced by a brighter and more radiant spectrum of colours. Furthermore, the luminaires provide years of dependable use under rugged conditions, raising reliability even further with added protection from corrosion. The overall impact of these brand-new exterior lights brings a dramatic glow that perfectly highlights the building’s architectural features and brings new attention, excitement and beauty to the Queen Elizabeth Hall that befits the venue’s prestigious status and offering.