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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 LIGHTING JOURNAL
FLEXIBLE WORKING Commercial office spaces need to be highly flexible spaces that can change configuration easily while maximising daylight, efficiency and energy use. As a recent project in a Scottish business park showed, this very much goes for the lighting too By Kevin McCully
M
arketed as ‘grade A office space’, Kildean Business Park is a recently completed venture by Stirling Development Agency. It is a collaboration between Cromwell and Stirling Council, in a part of Scotland popular with high-growth technology businesses, financial services, and life science companies.
Designed by architects Michael Laird Associates, the 7,000+ sq m building is visually striking both internally and externally, combining a sophisticated blend of materials – but most noticeably a lot of glass! The developers made sustainability a Kildean USP, adhering to stringent ESG objectives and achieving an ‘Excellent’ BREEAM rating. So, it was imperative to incorporate low-carbon technologies that drove up carbon efficiency wherever possible. David Garden, senior electrical design engineer at M&E consultants Henderson Warnock, explained the challenge to me. ‘Kildean is one of Scotland’s most architecturally striking and sustainable commercial buildings, so to help achieve this we had to explore and embrace the latest in lighting innovation and design. ‘This meant keeping an open mind on how to light different areas of the building, with certain zones requiring a bespoke
approach. The client demanded a system that saved energy and complemented the building’s level of specification and highend design. ‘Glass is a big feature, creating an abundance of natural light, but this meant there was limited scope for obstructive cabling, so the lighting needed to fit seamlessly into the building and still deliver the connected automatous controls that can adjust the lighting throughout the building,’ he added. This was why the Kildean team turned to us at Whitecroft, in particular our ‘Organic Response’ lighting system, which is a wireless ‘plug & play’ lighting control system.
FLEXIBLE CONFIGURATION One of the drivers for choosing this system was the fact that, like many commercial workplace or office spaces, these spaces often need to change configuration, often quite quickly. At Kildean, for example, although the three floors are currently open plan, they