Royal Bank of Scotland World Headquarters, Landscape
Edinburgh, Scotland, 2005
The Royal Bank of Scotland Headquarters landscape and exterior lighting posed a number of substantial challenges. Firstly the scale of the site that extends to 100 acres encompassing the main building, the conference centre, Gogarburn House, and the RBS Leisure Centre. The site was sensitive as it is at the edge of Edinburgh's green belt and it is adjacent to Edinburgh Airport with consequent restrictions to upward lighting imposed by the CAA and BAA.
KSLD’s lighting design approach has been a delicate one creating a number of distinct compositions based around specimen trees and specific landscape features forming courtyards between the wings of the main building. Overall we are using lamp wattages approximately half of those we would normally use in a more urban environment and we have taken several measures to prevent the visibility of the lighting from the air, positioning fittings below overhangs and tree canopies lighting from the inside of the tree canopies, providing glare shielding to every fitting and separately circuiting fittings located in trees shining downwards for pattern effects so that any uplight fittings that may be perceived as problematic can be switched off without losing the entire landscape scheme.
The lamp colours are mainly warm white CDM or compact fluorescent to achieve the best colour rendering for the varied leaf colours during the autumn and the fresh spring greens that will predominate when the lighting will be most effective between autumn and spring equinoxes. The lighting is controlled by a combination of daylight sensors and timeclocks to ensure the lighting operates only when it will be effective and seen to minimize energy usage.
As can be seen from the photography the lighting provides a number of distinct composed vistas visible from the pathways through the landscape and from the office blocks in the evening. Light trespass is essentially non-existent and the scheme is unobtrusive in the surrounding area meeting the requirements of the planning authorities and the Civil Aviation Authority.
KSLD’s lighting design approach has been a delicate one creating a number of distinct compositions based around specimen trees and specific landscape features forming courtyards between the wings of the main building. Overall we are using lamp wattages approximately half of those we would normally use in a more urban environment and we have taken several measures to prevent the visibility of the lighting from the air, positioning fittings below overhangs and tree canopies lighting from the inside of the tree canopies, providing glare shielding to every fitting and separately circuiting fittings located in trees shining downwards for pattern effects so that any uplight fittings that may be perceived as problematic can be switched off without losing the entire landscape scheme.
The lamp colours are mainly warm white CDM or compact fluorescent to achieve the best colour rendering for the varied leaf colours during the autumn and the fresh spring greens that will predominate when the lighting will be most effective between autumn and spring equinoxes. The lighting is controlled by a combination of daylight sensors and timeclocks to ensure the lighting operates only when it will be effective and seen to minimize energy usage.
As can be seen from the photography the lighting provides a number of distinct composed vistas visible from the pathways through the landscape and from the office blocks in the evening. Light trespass is essentially non-existent and the scheme is unobtrusive in the surrounding area meeting the requirements of the planning authorities and the Civil Aviation Authority.