Basildon Town Regeneration

The new lighting scheme for Basildon town centre incorporates a number of innovative features, making full use of Holophane’s ability to tailor projects to meet specific requirements. These features include bespoke architectural LED lighting and a high level of controllability and interfacing with other systems.  

Prior to the regeneration project this public space was relatively dark with very limited lighting – and the existing lighting was very energy-inefficient. 

In planning the regeneration of its town centre, Basildon Council was keen to address the poor lighting issue while also adding value in other ways and creating a feature with the lighting. To that end the lighting project had several key criteria:

•  Reduction in perceived fear of crime through improved lighting
• Increased energy-efficiency and reduced carbon emissions for lighting
• Integration of Christmas lighting to reduce seasonal costs
• Centralised DMX lighting controls to increase options for scene changes and co-ordinate the different lighting elements
• Ability to save energy further by dimming main lighting after 1am
• Opportunity to generate revenue from advertising, using lighting scenes and projectors

The project was managed on behalf of Basildon Council by Jacobs Engineering UK.

Project detail

The striking centrepiece of the town centre lighting uses 6 x Holophane Rondo 10m curved, tapered steel poles, each bearing a Rondo lantern with a dimmable 250W metal halide light source. At the centre of these is a Rondo decorative obelisk with RGB LED internal lighting.

The Rondo lanterns, combined with Muralux low wattage floodlight luminaires and the colour change LEDs, have helped to transform the space at night and increased the feeling of safety in the area. To minimise energy consumption the lamps are dimmable, enabling light levels to be reduced after 1am – or earlier on days where no events are being held.

Colour-change lighting has been incorporated into all of the lighting elements, from columns to strip lighting around tree areas and the fountain. A key element of the design was the ability to co-ordinate all of these elements.

“Challenges were many and included finding a way to make effective dynamic lighting in the side of a curved column and to have those LEDs synchronise with the rest of the LEDs on the project,” recalled Lorraine Calcott of Jacobs. “Holophane proved willing to work with me on developing the integrated Christmas lights into the columns and were quick, efficient and effective in their execution of the development,” she added.

In addition, Holophane supplied special columns and shrouds for CCTV and special columns for the gobo projectors that will be used for festive lighting and advertising.

Throughout the project, Holophane worked closely with Jacobs to ensure that the detailed design brief was adhered to, developing special solutions as and when required. The result is a stunning town centre lighting scheme that has revitalised the area for local businesses and their customers, while also improving the environmental performance of the lighting and reducing costs for the Council.

Working to my brief Holophane were able to interpret the requirements and form them into a fantastic workable solution,” Lorraine Calcott concluded.

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July 2011

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