Leeds, a vibrant city in the heart of the UK with a rich industrial history. Home to 1.5 million workers, it’s the fastest growing city in the UK with an economy sitting at around £60 billion. A place full of culture, history, and a vibrant atmosphere it makes it the ideal place for a city break. 

Central Square, Leeds is a new state of the art facility, hosting some of the UK’s brightest businesses including Sky Subscriptions, PwC UK and Clipper Logistics Plc, to name but a few.  Built on Wellington Street, the site was once home to Leeds Central Station which was the city’s main railway exchange. It was opened in 1848 and carried passengers and goods to every corner of the country before it’s closure in 1967.

We were invited to create an elegant, lighting design to enhance the modern architecture of this sophisticated facility, as well as making a feature of the rich history of the site.

We illuminated the building’s perimeter, as well as the plaza using our Italian built luminaires, including a carefully selected a range of recessed, wall mounted and downlight lanterns to enhance the aesthetic of the city centre structure.

The Luminaires

Paying tribute to the heritage of the site, we used linear recessed fitting, Krion-In, to emulate the appearance of a train track. This feature leads visitors through the plaza to the inner foyer of the building. This low glare luminaire perfectly accents the walkway without the imposition of harsher illumination.

On the 9^th floor of the building, a stunning Sky Garden has been created to host regular business events, as well as a day-to-day break out area for inhabitants.  The sleek Gothic 180 bollard was selected to line the perimeter of this outdoor space, which gives panoramic view over the city.

Feature lighting is introduced with the Fila, a wall mounted luminaire that is specifically placed on different elevations of the building to add drama to the architectural features.

Ellis 2 is a curved, wall mounted luminaire offers a one-way illumination and was placed on the surrounding walls of the building highlighting the vertical columns of the first 2 stories.

The Inground 180 recessed luminaire was used in several areas of this installation to further enhance the architecture, as well as other features of the site including the trees at the front of the building.

We featured our street luminaire Italo 1 in the service road of the building. It’s sleek design and high-performance output perfectly compliments the architectural theme of the scheme without compromising on functionality.

3D Visualisation

Our expert design team are able to produce 3D visualisations for large scale projects such as Central Square. This imagery allows us to showcase the finished look of a project before it has even started, showcasing the scheme design, as well as the effectiveness created by the luminaires.

In the past it has been very difficult, and very time consuming, for Lighting Designers to create effective 3D visualisations but access to innovative technology has made the process more accessible and allows us to create impressive and impactful visuals. 

Click here to see our interactive 360 view of this project.