Lighting in Design Q3 2018

forms for the trading area, but then it’s a bit like Lego ... you play with it and adapt it,” Pelkowska says. “This store is similar to Leroy Merlin stores over- seas, but we do keep the design open and leave elements for local identification,” says Pelkowska, although the basic technical rule of a crisp, white store which doesn’t interrupt the customer experi- ence is synonymous with the brand worldwide. It is a far cry from the dark and dingy hardware stores of the past, and the interiors are designed with younger generations and female shoppers in mind. The important role of lighting “From a lighting perspective, our brief is sleek light lines,” says Pelkowska. “The general lighting layout is LED fixtures at 6 m, with focused lighting for the showroom areas and special exhibitions.”The archi- tects asked for 700 lux in the trading areas, higher and warmer than you would find in similar stores. “There are no accidents in what we specify – every aspect of the requirements is precise, hence the lux and our warm white colour requirement.” As the height of the in-store racks is not uniform throughout, this meant that the penetration of light was not uniform throughout. “We performed numerous tests because there were places in the store which I felt were a bit dark. The 700 lux level is our minimum, but in zones where racks obstruct the light, or dark products absorb light, we added extra spotlights as we did in areas where we tried to focus the attention of the customers on ‘star’ products,” she says. Pelkowska notes that in certain areas there are almost “theatrical installations” of lighting to highlight items. A ‘soft’ BMS system is employed, and with nu- merous skylights providing natural light, the use of interior lighting in the store will be optimised once the tenants get used to the day-to-day running of the building. “With the natural lighting you have

Pelkowska, Leroy Merlin’s in-house architect along with Thomas Lanier. After five years of research and planning, Leroy Merlin is taking an uncharacteristically aggressive approach to South Africa, opening three further stores in the next year in Roodepoort, Boksburg and in Fourways, alongside the Fourways Mall re- development. Having designed and built 15 Leroy Merlin stores in Russia and redeveloped a further 15 retailers into Leroy Merlin stores in Romania, Pelkowska now heads up the company’s architec- tural design and construction into new markets. The site was handed over in April 2017 and the 16 000 m 2 store, with additional offices of 700 m 2 (including a kitchen, showers, changing rooms, bathrooms, and break areas for staff), opened this September.With 35 000 different products and 120 members of staff, Leroy Merlin presents a markedly different DIY shopping experience for customers. “It is about the vibe people get when they shop here and the modern, clean, bright interiors of the store reflect this,” says Pelkowska. Lanier, a French architect who has been based in South Africa for almost two decades, notes that the South African context is quite interesting for Leroy Merlin. “Much of the local population, especially in the areas where we are building the stores, is well travelled, educated, sophisticated and openminded. We couldn’t just come with a big box and expect people to react well to that; we needed to deliver something user friendly. This, he explains, is done through a mix of elements, notably quality of light, colour schemes, and materials and textures used, which sets Leroy Merlin apart from the opposition. “As architects we have to be conscious of rack layouts in the store.The merchandising department has certain rules about rack layouts, how large the alley is, how deep the racks are, how many racks need to be placed, the width of the main passage, etc, – so we are given the general dimensions and

13

LiD Q3 - 2018