St Martin's Courtyard

The Light Lab realised the initial concept & design of Brimelowe McSweeney Architects & lighting designers Studio 29, to manufacture and install a unique mirror polished stainless steel ceiling-with a vinyl covered poly-carbonate wall, back-lit with LED colour spot/floodlights, to offer shadow and projected effects through the walkway – leading into St Martin’s Courtyard.

The initial concept for the installation is born from the idea of challenging people to explore their relationship with public space and how it influences their surroundings; as Tony Rimmer from lighting designers Studio 29 further explains: “The aim of the installation is to draw visitors to the courtyard through an interactive and fun experience, they’re invited to engage and become the part of the installation and not be a spectator. Once the installation is triggered by movement, people can create their own coloured shadow and paint the space, forming a heightened sense of place”

“The design was inspired by one of the basic principles of light and colour with additive colour mixing. The art of mixing primary red, green and blue light which creates white light. Yet, there’s the ‘magical moment’ when you mix all three RGB lights and move your hand in front to create secondary coloured shadows of cyan, magenta and yellow. Painting with shadow. Carefully placed coloured lights shine through a perforated garden-like patterns that not only cast coloured shadows of petals but of passers-by alike painting the space with light.”

The overall lighting scheme for St Martin’s Courtyard is now an award-winning project, recently winning the following highly prestigious lighting design awards.

Highly Commended Award for best Light and Surface Exterior Design at the 2023 Surface Design Awards

Commendation at the Lux Awards 2022 in the ‘Outdoor Lighting Project of the Year’ category.

Most recently, the overall scheme at The Yards has been shortlisted in the darc Awards 2022 in the Art-High Budget category.