Kingswalk Shopping Centre
Client:
Morley Fund Management
Year of Completion:
2004
Architect/Designer: Benoy Main Contractor/Customer: Pearce Retail Services
Architect/Designer: Benoy Main Contractor/Customer: Pearce Retail Services
The introduction of Architen Landrell fabric sails within public entrances and concourses provided a cost-effective means of enhancing the retail environment. Computer-controlled lighting of each fabric sail creates a theatrical effect that acts as a device to emphasise evening shopping.
Illuminated by LED lighting, a series of fabric sculptures helped transform Kings Walk Shopping Centre in Gloucester from a dull seventies arcade into a vibrant and colourful shopping experience.
The tailor made sculptures, suspended in three separate areas of the shopping centre, were considered particularly practical due to their size, energy efficiency and ease of care.
The external PVC entrance canopy was designed to create maximum visual impact and is lit with 10 three way 1W Luxeon LED projectors to encourage people to take a look inside. After entering the centre, shoppers find themselves under a fabric ceiling that forms a 100m fabric clad tunnel lit with a series of extruded strips of colour-changing LEDs running down both sides. The effect is to create a spacey, undulating wash of gently colour-changing pastel hues along the walkway. The end of the corridor opens out into a high vaulted ceiling filled with tensioned sails with colour changing LED lighting to create a subtle colour-changing wash effect.
The stunning tensile sails combined with state of the art lighting effects show that a little imagination can help transform a drab space into a unique architectural display.
