Hoare Lea’s winning project comprised a series of visualisations which showed the proposed refurbishment and lighting scheme designed to illuminate both the paintings and interior space of the Cumberland Art Gallery.

Hoare Lea CGI combined its expertise in the niche area of accurate lighting visualisation, with a mastery of 3D-modelling and physically-based rendering tools (such as 3Ds Max and Vray) to create photo-realistic visuals. The resulting visualisations accurately represented the final, relit gallery and proved highly effective in communicating design ideas and showing how the gallery would look.

Karam Bhamra, of Hoare Lea CGI, comments: “It means a lot to us to have the quality of our work recognised by the judges. We didn’t think we would win as this is the first time we have entered the SBID Awards and the standard in the category is really high… we are absolutely delighted.”

The lighting design

The Cumberland Gallery at Hampton Court Palace is a dedicated space for artworks from the Royal Collection. It enables visitors to view the artworks in a stunning gallery setting, which reflects the palace’s history as a destination for the work of artists, such as Holbein, Van Dyck, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Bassano and Gainsborough.

The gallery occupies a newly-restored suite of rooms designed by Architect William Kent in the 1730s, as private apartments for George II’s son, William Augustus, the Duke of Cumberland.

The brief given to architect firm Purcell and Hoare Lea Lighting was to return the Cumberland Suite as closely as possible to Kent’s original scheme. Historic Royal Palaces wanted to create a dedicated space to highlight some of the works of the Royal Collection, and to use art as the lens through which to understand the royal history, stories and material culture of the palace.

The process

Understanding the heritage of the space, while creating a contemporary solution, was crucial. Simon Dove, Associate at Hoare Lea Lighting, explains: “Working within a listed building such as Hampton Court inevitably presented challenges, and mock-ups were used to explore the implications of introducing light fittings and to communicate design ideas.”

Hoare Lea Lighting’s CGI product, the LightSIM, was also used to create a virtual reproduction of the space; this proved highly effective when discussing the proposed scheme.

The solution

While remaining faithful to the architecture and finishes, the intent was for the environment to have the feel of a gallery, and the lighting immediately announces that this is a different type of space. Picture rails supply power to LED spotlights, which highlight the paintings. Although, tungsten has often been used in gallery settings, the quality of the white light now produced by LEDs, together with benefits such as energy efficiency, small size, high colour rendering of 95+, warm colour temperature, ease of dimming and the lack of ultraviolet light created, made LED an ideal choice.

The look of each fitting was carefully considered to ensure the scheme complemented the space during the day, as well as enhancing it at night. These fittings, developed in favour of the traditional linear picture lights usually specified in heritage buildings, give a contemporary elegance to the rooms.

To incorporate flexibility, achieve the precise lux levels required and create the desired visual impression, individual dimming control of every fitting was important. Simon explains: “It was a key requirement to dim each luminaire from within the space, rather than from a remote location or via a complex lighting control system.”

This is demonstrated by the ceiling rosettes used to light a number of rooms. The disc-shaped rosette is suspended from the ceiling above the chandelier. Miniature spotlights mounted on the disc accent the artwork. Each spotlight is dimmable and mechanically adjustable and can be moved within the disc and angled to light a painting or an architectural feature. Fittings are linked to an architectural lighting control system; this uses simple scenes and allows switching for security and cleaning purposes.

To the left of the lobby is the ‘Wolsey Closet’. A surviving Tudor room, this wood-panelled closet features an ornate gold ceiling and a sequence of vivid painted panels. Adjustable uplights in the window sill light the ceiling, while an antique-brass finish fascia ensures the fittings blend seamlessly with the architecture. Floorstanding LED uplights infill the gold ceiling and light the paintings that line the room at high-level, creating a diffuse light.

Housing Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait in a Flat Cap, amongst other artworks, the Presence Chamber features a beautiful William Kent ceiling. The visitor’s eye is drawn to the white plaster ceiling and its details, which are picked out by LED spotlights discreetly integrated into seating in the centre of the room. Background lighting is provided by decorative wall sconces. Due to the historic nature of the space, particularly the Kent ceiling, finding locations for luminaires to light the artwork was challenging, and the solution was to mount the spotlights to the rear of the picture frames.

Within the Duke’s light closet are 12 ‘Grand Canal’ views of Venice by Canaletto. Miniature spotlights mounted on the ceiling rosette above the chandelier highlight the paintings and provide general illumination.

A spokesperson from Purcell concludes: “The new lighting was carefully designed to provide beautiful illumination of the paintings using the latest LED technology, but minimising the impact on the sensitive building fabric. The result also greatly enhances the artwork and the room’s architectural features.”

Team:

Client: Historic Royal Palaces Architect: Purcell
Project Manager: Historic Royal Palaces
Conservation Plan: Curator of Historic Buildings, Hampton Court
Conservation Handling and Maintenance: Historic Royal Palaces, CCC Team
Lighting Designer: Hoare Lea Lighting
Electrical Services Engineer: Qoda
Structural Engineer: Hockley and Dawson
Quantity Surveyor: Historic Royal Palaces
Planning Supervisor: Historic Royal Palaces
Paint Analysis: Patrick Baty
Wall Fabric Consultant: Annabel Westman
Main Contractor: Fairhurst Ward Abbott
Visualisation: Hoare Lea CGI

Suppliers:

• Raylight
• TM Lighting
• Heritage Lighting