Under the lights
A new lighting design scores for Stoke City Football Club’s superstore
By Vilma Barr
December 29, 2011
Photo courtesy of Lee James/West’s Design Consultants
Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, U.K., is the traditional home of the United Kingdom’s quality pottery industry, where such renowned makers as Royal Doulton, Spode, Minton and Wedgwood have crafted elegant dinnerware for generations. So, when the Stoke City Football Club was founded in 1863, they chose to be known as “The Potters.” In 2011, the administration building that now houses the professional team’s new superstore at their home playing field, Britannia Stadium, underwent a $1.6 million renovation, along with several support spaces.
“It was imperative to completely overhaul the existing store,” says Jason West, director of West’s Design Consultants, Manchester, U.K. “The existing layout made the space look cluttered and hard for customers to find what they want to purchase.” He collaborated with AFL Architects, also based in Manchester, and London-based Into Lighting Ltd. to create a contemporary interior to stimulate increased traffic by the fans and visitors of the Stoke City Football Club.
The design objective was to create greater merchandising capacity on the selling floor and flowing circulation in a lighter, airy environment. Originally housed in a 1,916-sq.-ft. space, the new layout was increased by 30 percent to 2,443 sq. ft.
Overhead, the designers mirrored the angles of the freestanding displays by the functional ceiling rafts, which serve as soffits for air movement outlets and downlights, but as a visual barrier to the ductwork above. Areas of the dropped ceiling were left open to a 13-ft.-high structural ceiling above, giving the space an extended sense of volume.
Lighting designer Darren Orrow, director of Into Lighting, along with associate designer Stuart Moth, predominantly used metal halide cool downlights in a combination of track-hung and soffit recessed systems. Inside the recessed, dropped angled ceiling panels (which also house the HVAC vents), are adjustable downlight luminaires fitted with 240-volt, 70-watt metal halide lamps. Pairs of these same lamps are recessed into the dark-finished, ceiling-hung panels that extend along the length of the store. One set faces into the store interior, while the other is positioned toward the wall unit. These overhead panels are curved to visually line up with the tops of the recessed wall cases where hanging merchandise is shown, often on double-tier racks. Illumination is provided by 240-volt, 35-watt linear fluorescent luminaires, positioned to be free of glare to shoppers.
The lighting designers hung a rectangular three-circuit track extending almost the width of the entry to the store. Two dozen fully adjustable 240-volt, 70-watt metal halide spotlights are positioned to beam onto up-front freestanding displays. A linear track of these same spotlights is positioned over the five-station cashwrap at the rear of the store.
Surface-mounted 2.2-watt, 12-in.-long LED strips are integrated into the underside of the frames of freestanding display units, accenting mannequins or display cases.
West varied neutral tones of silver, mid-gray and dark gray laminates that serve to unify the product groupings. “They act as frames to give additional dimension to the reds, blues and fluorescent greens of the Stoke City FC apparel and packaged products on view,” he indicates. Variations to the height and depth of the units together form a family of presentation styles that creates a sense of discovery for shoppers moving through the store.
RSS.jpg)
