According to the baroque system that I use for numbering my projects, the call to get involved in the refurbishment of the old Baptist church in Poole came from architect Ken Morgan in August 2020. It sounded like being a lot of fun – Ken still uses pen and paper rather than AutoCad – and, of course it would have to be pro bono involvement because there was no money for lighting. What’s not to like?
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Which brings us to Sunday 20th March 2022, just a year later than the original estimate for the refurbishment, and the official opening of the new Routes2Roots drop-in facility for people in Poole who are homeless or vulnerably housed. For anyone thinking of taking on a building like a Victorian chapel, ignorance is probably real bliss, because as soon as you lift a floorboard all the horrors and degradation of a 150-year old building come howling into the daylight – and they will not be ignored. All it takes is a LOT MORE MONEY and a LOT MORE TIME.
And before I talk about anything else, let me say a huge thank-you to Kate Roberts who joined me in our fee-free endeavour to turn this project into something really special. Thank you, Kate!
The first thing that I needed to do was to address the ‘no money’ situation. One thing we knew; this was not going to be some cheap and not-so-cheerful trawl through the commodity market. the expectations within the client body were high, even though no one knew what the outcome would be. I spoke to Stuart Alexander at Michael Grubb Studios and got their approval to utilise the Re:Lit imprimatur that would help me in negotiations with manufacturers. Of course, I needn’t have worried; the overwhelming response – and it really was overwhelming in all the good meanings of the word – was positive and we were able to deliver a specification that met (exceeded) everyone’s dreams. So let me say here and now – in case I forget further down the page – THANK YOU to everyone who stepped up to the crease and put in a damned fine innings.
(that’s a cricketing metaphor, I believe).
Let’s a take a look at some of the less obvious things that we got up to:
Pendant fixtures and a 6m high ceiling:
One of the aspects of the Re:Lit initiative is that the designer needs to keep an open mind about what might be available. When I spoke to Ray Lavidge at SG Lighting I asked him about pendants that would work above a servery counter, ignoring the inconvenient factor that the ceiling would be about 4m further up.
The Bell shades were ideal for what we wanted to achieve. All I had to do was to speak to my local blacksmith (surely, every lighting designer has one!), to create a box-bracket that enabled us to terminate the factory-fitted flex into the base and the flex from the ceiling rose into the top. All the electrician then needed to do was to fit an appropriate connector block and – as if my magic . . . job done.
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There must be some LED Round panels about:
Yes, tucked away on the shelves at Optaled and now gracing R2R in Poole. Julian Birch is the man to thank for these.
While we was busy locking down the lighting specification, Ken – architect of this parish – was scavenging and salvaging as much timber as he could lay his hands on.
The final detail to be added to the design, then, as two applications – anything by standard will do, thank you very much.
we’re not done yet, though. The brightness of these units needs to be addressed, so we’ll be applying a filter screen to the face of each fixture. But not just any old filter, we need to keep the them going.
So what better than repurposing material from the most decorative feature in the building . . .
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But will there be colour:
I didn’t need to go far for this one. Townhill Studio is the outlet for my partner, Annabel Wilson. she ahs become a major voice in the UK for Shibori-inspired textile design.
The brilliant natural dye-tones of the shades, set against the muted tones of the building fabric, create a wonderful lift, both visual and emotional. So we’re doubly-chuffed about that.
Back to our LED Rounds – we’ll be going back to one or two of Annabel’s shades and cutting the fabrics into rounds, to fit in front of the LED diffusers. Glorious stuff.
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You’ve got a high ceiling; there must be something you can do with an LED high-bay retrofit:
Well, yes – but nothing like that!
The ceiling in the organ loft is the original lath-plaster-wing-and-a-prayer and there was no way that we going anywhere near it. But a high-power uplight . . . now there’s a thought.
Old enough to remember the minimalism of the Castiglioni’s Flos Toio, I took the Filamento retro-fit LED lamp to my favourite local blacksmith and between us we came up with a simple-yet-robust light unit that is heavy enough not to be going anywhere soon.
Understanding that R2R works with some of the most fragile and vulnerable members of our community we were conscious that our decision to use a portable fixture brought a certain amount of hazard. And that’s why our uplight is almost tip-proof and almost certainly too heavy to be abused. Says he with confidence . . .
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But, lest we forget:
An important part of the R2R facility is to provide their clients with the resources to look after themselves on a daily basis – the stuff that we rarely think about as we stumble to the shower first thing every morning.
The space behind the hall houses the R2R office, with a forward facing reception desk to met anyone who calls in. And beyond the office there are the toilets, showers, laundry and a medical room.
There was no question that the overall quality of lighting would not be maintained ‘back-of-house’ and SG Lighting and Tamlite were there to ensure that we achieved everything that we wanted.
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We reckon that the project is about three-quarters complete. With a following wind and additional funding we’ll be back again to get the exterior lighting installed (there”s some major re-pointing to be done so we’ll be piggy-backing on the scaffolding (No! don’t try that at home!).
And we also have another hall to complete. There’s a ‘village hall’ space at the back of the main building; the kind of space that can bring in money through entertainments and regular hirings. we need to get that complete – and I want to get the lighting that we have from Illuma and LED Linear up onto that ceiling.
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If you want to learn more about Routes2Rotts you can find them HERE.
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