Client Stanhope Plc | Dates 2020-2025 |
Architect Allford Hall Monaghan Morris | AHMM | Photographer Rob Parrish |
Project Team Mark Major, Clementine Fletcher Smith, Charlotte Armstrong | |
In keeping with the Brutalist design, lighting is integrated through thoughtful detailing and honest expression. In the entrance circulation, column-mounted bars incorporate track and spotlights, with decorative metalwork echoing the exposed steel reinforcement at the building’s base. Where new ceiling slabs were introduced, feature downlights sit within shallow circular indents, scaled to suit the architecture. A long existing lobby beam houses linear lighting expressed with a clean, brushed-metal detail.
Across the major shared spaces, we developed a bespoke family of luminaires deployed in a range of configurations—from contributing gentle uplighting that accentuates the building’s monumental volumes to creating a more intimate, human scale when suspended lower.
Drawing from archival imagery, these elegant interpretations of the original fittings embody a “form follows function” ethos, delivering functional, decorative, and emergency lighting within one cohesive family.
At the building’s centre, the illuminated lift core becomes a visual anchor, with Reglit glass catching light and the moving lift cars casting animated shadows through the void. Adjacent, carefully integrated lighting enhances the textures and colours of the timber and metalwork of the feature stair.
Externally, the building is crowned by its colour-illuminated plant tower. Using the same palette as Lasdun’s neighbouring National Theatre—though with different colours selected for different days—the precisely controlled hues visually connect the two related buildings while preserving their distinct identities.
Across the landscaped terraces, subtle lighting reveals planting texture and circulation routes, and preserves the expressive silhouette of the stepped Brutalist form after dark.
The lighting brings clarity and expression to both the architecture and its renewed materiality. The result is warm, robust, and understated—honouring the building’s heritage while supporting its transformation into a successful contemporary workplace.