LIGHTING COVENTRY

LIGHTING

COVENTRY

Coventry is set to be the UK’s City of Culture from May, an opportunity that has allowed its civic spaces and public realm to be rethought, and re-illuminated, to stunning effect

By Andy Hart

Public realm lighting

Since 2017, when Coventry was awarded UK City of Culture, we’ve been working hard at Coventry City Council to regenerate the public realm of the city, with lighting very much at the heart of this transformation.

The old city of Coventry was, of course, devastated during World War Two, with the ruined shell of Coventry Cathedral – the Cathedral Church of St Michael to give it its full name – left as it was following the bombing to become an iconic symbol of the city’s survival and rebirth.

But that also meant Coventry developed a reputation for its brutal post-war architectural landscape. That, too, is now changing, with much work and investment having taken place to improve the city’s retail heart and public spaces.

For the City of Culture, £44m of funding has been provided by the West Midlands Combined Authority and the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership to regenerate large parts of the city, creating a legacy for local people.

YEAR-LONG PROGRAMME OF EVENTS

Like most things last year, Covid-19 has made its impact felt, in that the City of Culture was originally due to start last month (January) but now will be getting underway from May.

There will also be a 365-day cultural and events programme alongside a signature launch event in May, which will bring together thousands of residents in a spectacle presented across hundreds of locally built structures.

In terms of regeneration, there is a lighting project underway in Greyfriars Green, the grassed area as you walk into the city from the railway station. Work is now complete in Bull Yard and there is impressive new lighting in Pepper Lane.

We are relighting the Upper Precinct shopping area where we will pay homage to the original ‘Festival of Britain’ lanterns as well as creating some beautifully lit fountains a n d relighting the city’s iconic three spires: Holy Trinity, Christchurch House and St Michael’s.

As a lighting professional, the scale of the regeneration is a huge opportunity to shape – and reshape – the public realm of Coventry, not just for this year but for decades to come.

To that end, during 2021 we will, through Lighting Journal, be looking regularly to update ILP members on different elements of the project, including explaining in more detail some of the thinking, challenges and learning that has come about.

Public realm lighting

DYNAMIC LIGHTING SCENES

To give an initial flavour, however, with Greyfriars Green we’ve installed a series GOBO units per column, through which, working with Architainment Lighting, Balfour Beatty Living Places and Speirs Major, we’ve been able to create vivid, dynamic lighting scenes.

In fact, because we’re using red, green, blue and white LED, we’ve calculated we have approximately 52 million options to choose from! We’ve got Christmas effects in blues and greens and reds; we’ve looked at things like Halloween effects, so we can bring people into the city via a Halloween trail.

The huge range of options available to us at the touch of a button means we can ensure that walking routes are impressive, immersive and surprising! There is already a programme underway to mark special occasions, such as Remembrance Sunday, St George’s Day and both national and international awareness days.

In Bull Yard, there is 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 column’.

Kids can swing around them; they can walk through them; we’ve really pushed the boundaries. We’ve also had some really good feedback. We’ve had people saying, ‘it is like War of the Worlds’ or ‘it is like a Pink Floyd video’. It has created a real talking point. They are functional too, of course. And that’s exactly what we wanted!

In the main shopping area, we’ve got a balustrade area that originally had some 1950s’ GEC fittings, and some Festival of Britain fittings. We’ve taken these down and, working with local company Candela Traditional Lighting, we’ve scanned them, created computer-generated mock-ups and then recreated them; so we now have 1956 lanterns with 21st century technology in them.

p This image and previous page: Whittle Arch

in Coventry. Below: the water feature in Bull Yard, in front of Christchurch Spire RETHINKING CIVIC PERCEPTIONS

We’ve got 20 columns going in, along with planter lights, inground tree lighting and bench lighting. From research around the Equality Act, we discovered that bench lighting can, actually, be very good for people who are partially sighted as well as people with dementia, so every bench now has a lighting unit within it.

We have installed lights on approximately 40 trees but, rather than just lighting the branches or just throwing lighting into the canopy, we’ve illuminated the trunks.

As soon as you start thinking that way, that creatively, anything can be achieved. All of a sudden, the way people see things, and the pride they feel in their city, takes off.

It is about restoring a sense of pride, a sense of destination, into your public realm. City of Culture will give us a great year to remember but beyond that the way we use, celebrate and enjoy the city centre will continue and that includes enjoying some fantastic lighting. Watch this space for our next article!

THE UK CITY OF CULTURE COMPETITION

UK City of Culture is a competition run by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, writes Nic Paton.

Every four years, cities compete to be awarded the prestigious title, with the first UK City of Culture being awarded to Derry/Londonderry in 2013 followed by Hull in 2017.

The title brings with it an opportunity to place your city on a national and international stage, including, as we are seeing with Coventry, an opportunity to showcase your lighting infrastructure.

Coventry was awarded the title in December 2017 after competing against 11 other cities. Its ‘year’ will run from May (as explained above, delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic) through to May 2022.

Andy Hart is consultant project manager working for Coventry City Council