The British Airways London Eye has just unveiled the first phase of a three part permanent LED lighting installation.
The installation has been completed by Lighting Technology Projects.
A permanent lighting scheme was always part of the architect, Marks Barfield’s, plans for the London Eye’s, which until now has been lit by a ‘stop-gap’ installation of fluorescents.
The ultimate goal was always to have even, smooth, seamless coverage of the London Eye’s steel framework – and a flexible lighting scheme that fulfilled several fundamental and practical roles.
It had to be illuminated to meet Civil Aviation Authorities (CAA) requirements, and as lighting from below would make it invisible from above, any lighting of the Eye had to come from within its structure. This immediately suggested taking advantage of being able to diffuse lightsources over the steelwork.
Various options were examined and Color Kinetics was chosen as a manufacturer. After demonstrations and a mock up, the ColorCast fixture, an off the shelf IP66 rated product, was chosen Factors like build quality and general toughness of the fixture were key in the final decision – considering the hostile environment to which they’d be exposed.
South Wales-based Lighting Technology Projects (LTP) was recommended to undertake the installation work by CK and Architainment.
‘Eye sees the light
