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Founded in 1847, the historic Taunton School is set in a beautiful 50-acre site in Somerset. The chapel itself was built in 1907, sponsored by a wealthy baron named Sir William Wills, it sits amongst a range of 19th century, gothic style buildings which have Grade II listed status.
The Chapel is of great importance, it is at the heart of the school both physically and spiritually, and remains a key aspect of daily life for the school. It is used not only as a place of worship and ceremony venue for the students, but also as a concert hall, wedding and conference venue, so it became apparent that whatever the new lighting solution it had to be multifunctional.
As well as versatility, the main objectives for this project were: to upgrade the existing light fittings to LED; replace the uplighting of the impressive ceiling and to add in extra spotlights to emphasise the unusual original features, such as the mosaic walls.
Taunton School, 3D Render
Taunton School, Complete Installation
The existing metal halide floodlights in the chapel were too conspicuous and did not provide any accent lighting in the space. Illuma proposed their new Gridspot LED spotlight as a sleeker and much more discreet solution, whilst offering all the new advantages of LED technology.
After other lighting manufacturers failed to design a lighting scheme that satisfied all of the requirements, Illuma’s South West Area Manager, Simon O’Driscoll and Lighting Designer, Kate Morley, put forward a proposal that ticked all the boxes for the client.
Kate Morley had this to say about the project, “We understood the need for a higher lux level than a normal church environment because of the multifunctional nature of the room. But even with our product's dimming capabilities I was conscious that we didn’t want to over light the space – we wanted to put accents in all the right places but also give the space a warm and inviting glow.”
The answer was to use a warm white colour temperature and a combination of lumen outputs to provide uplighting and downlighting, giving the chapel a good ambient lux level without being overwhelming.
Illuma's dimmable Gridspot LED fitting now adds flexibility to the lighting Chapel, enabling them to adapt to anything from a place of worship to a conference hall. With the addition of accent lighting, Illuma have provided a warm, multipurpose, reduced maintenance scheme that is the perfect solution for this one-of-a-kind chapel.
Find out more about Taunton School Chapel: Taunton School
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