CIBSE Building Performance Awards shortlist announced

Atelier Ten has been shortlisted for the CIBSE Building Services Consultancy of the Year and has two projects on the shortlist for the Lighting for Building Performance award.

CIBSE Building Services Consultancy of the Year (more than 100 employees)

In the 1970s ‘limits to growth’ and resource depletion emerged as critical issues. Then in the 1980s concern with human impacts on the depletion of the ozone layer and the spectre of global warming led to the notion of designing to be more sustainable. When Atelier Ten was founded in 1990, our preoccupation was how to do more with less: to make the most of form and materiality to ‘make good weather’ inside buildings and at the same time reduce energy demands. Our role as designers fundamentally changed as environmental concerns and sustainability moved from the margins to being central to every project at every scale. Many of the ideas and techniques that we have pioneered and tested in both the UK and internationally have now become mainstream.

As we celebrate our 25th year of business, we continue to aspire to be a force for good; thankfully we have found many clients who are willing to trust that innovative ideas based on sound engineering can be made to work. Our approach to climate-specific design solutions developed and evolved so that we now have a significant portfolio of completed projects that are fundamentally different to the conventional. They are the stepping-stones towards the environmental revolution that we continue to pursue in our work.

Lighting for Building Performance Award – National Theatre, London

The National Theatre is undergoing extensive refurbishment and remodelling to transform this Grade II* listed building into a place that brings together world-class artists, emerging talent and the public. Atelier Ten designed the lighting throughout the new and refurbished areas of the National Theatre, working closely with the architect Haworth Tompkins and the theatre.

A previous refurbishment had diluted the drama of Denys Lasdun’s original design; we developed a new lighting concept to play with the balance of darkness and light. We designed a custom family of luminaires for the National Theatre, bringing a sense of unity throughout the new and refurbished spaces. The design incorporates playful elements of accent using gold reflector cones in luminaires over seating areas and red-sleeved pendants over bars and atrium areas; the temperature of the lighting was carefully selected to bring warmth to the Brutalist board-marked concrete.

Cost savings were inherent in Atelier Ten’s lighting design, as the DALI protocol is so robust as to allow the reuse of exsiting of wiring in the foyers to transmit power and control. Through the careful design and specification of lighting and controls, Atelier Ten has reduced the energy use by 70 per cent from the existing scheme. More significant, however, is the sense of drama that has returned to the foyers of the National Theatre.

National Theatre project profile

Lighting for Building Performance Award – WWF-UK Living Planet Centre, Woking

WWF-UK is a bespoke, BREEAM Outstanding centre designed with the charity’s commitment to sustainability in mind. Built over an existing car park, the building was designed to maximize the use of natural light. We worked closely with Hopkins Architects from the earliest stages of the project to produce a lighting design that is highly integrated and innovative. We influenced the architectural design of the building and façade; the orientation of the building was optimized to make best use of natural daylight while avoiding glare.

Natural daylight levels throughout the building are higher than the average factor required by BREEAM. The remaining need for artificial lighting is met through clever combinations of commonly available elements: highly efficient luminaires and lamp sources used with DALI dimming and controls and occupancy sensing. The aspiration was to make extensive use of controls to minimize energy use and maximize the use of daylight. The lighting design compliments the architecture of the building and has been designed to quietly enhance, rather than distract or detract from, the building form.

WWF-UK Living Planet Centre project profile

Top: the foyer at the National Theatre. Photographs by Redshift Photography
Bottom: WWF-UK Living Planet Centre. Photographs by Atelier Ten