MAY 2021
LIGHTING JOURNAL
Public realm lighting
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n the February edition of Lighting Journal, we outlined how lighting is at the heart of Coventry’s year this year as the UK’s City of Culture, with projects either complete or near completion in Greyfriars Green, Bull Yard, Pepper Lane, Upper Precinct and our three cathedral spires: Holy Trinity, Christchurch and St Michael’s (‘Lighting Coventry’, vol 86, no 2). We promised at that time that we would be revisiting our work as it unfolded and, in a series of articles throughout the year, focus on various aspects of what has been, and still is, a massively ambitious regeneration project. With the City of Culture 365-day cultural and events programme getting underway this month, for this article we shall be looking at how Bull Yard, a previously somewhat neglected shopping precinct, despite being the city’s ‘shop window’ for visitors arriving from the train station, has now been transformed. Within Bull Yard there is a now a new illuminated water feature and, working with Urbis Schréder, we’ve installed bespoke three-legged lighting columns which, in fact, are now being marketed as ‘the Coventry columns’. The project includes a new playground, seating and benching, and now offers a completely unique space within the city, one combining a mix of family-friendly spaces and night-time economy opportunities.
RETHINKING PLAY AND RELAXATION
The lighting in Bull Yard previously was standard functional lighting; just 10m columns with 150 watt Cosmopolis on them. It lit the area well enough but was all just very functional. Yet it is now also adjacent to the ‘The Wave’, a multi-million-pound eye-catching indoor water park. So, when we were thinking how best to bring the area up to date, we wanted to create a scheme that complemented and transitioned through seamlessly to The Wave. Our initial thinking was about going right back to basics. What did we do before we had the distractions of the internet and smartphones? How did children play? Well, of course, they made their own play, they made things happen through their imagination and their friends. So, when we were looking at the lighting columns we asked what is it about a column that can be different, what can we do with it that makes it different, makes how it is used with a space a bit special? After all, if we’re being honest, a lighting column can be pretty boring and functional; just a structure that does what it says on the tin. So we wanted to bring an element of fun back to the space, for children, but also for adults. That’s why the columns are three-legged; children can play in, around and on them totally safely. They are also wood-clad to make them more tactile within the surroundings. Columns normally tend either to be at
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