Lighting in Design Q3 2018

here in South Africa, I thought, ‘wow, maybe we can just turn everything off!’ During sunny days, I believe that most of the lighting in store could ac- tually be used for marketing purposes rather than functional lighting needs,” says Pelkowska. Externally, street lighting is provided in the parking area, but it is the Leroy Merlin signage that catches the eye. “It is actually an optical illusion,” explains Pelkowska. The signage is dark green, al- though the double printed vinyl banner on light boxes appears black during the day because of the contrast with the exterior’s white cladding and the blue sky. Once lit at night, the rich corporate green acts as a beacon for the store. Lanier explains that the perfect solution for lighting the large triangle that forms the company’s logo and offers a hint of the scale of the building, would have been to have it backlit, but this was a challenge owing to its size and maintenance needs. “Here we concentrated the façade lighting on the triangle without much light loss, as our park- ing light requirement level is already high, and also projects onto the elevation of the building.” Looking back on the company’s first store in Africa, Pelkowska is happy with the way local con- tractors and suppliers worked with the “strange animal from France telling them what to do”. While there were a few struggles with the quality of the execution of the work, the team is positive it can learn from this first experience. “It is not easy to break habits, but we have worked on projects that have been a lot more difficult than this one. On the electrical side, the electrical engineers, Monty Miller Associates, were very hands-on and worked really closely with us, and we are very happy to have them on board at the Boksburg store as well.” By using as many local suppliers as possible and holding them to exacting European standards, in Greenstone, Leroy Merlin has created a world class retail environment which could signify a shift in South African consumers’ hardware spend, and lighting has proved to be key in the realisation of this store.

From the lighting supplier Kevin Murphy from the lighting suppliers, Province Lighting, says that for the first Leroy Merlin store in the country, and with so many variables to work around, the project was a resounding success. “We supplied all the lighting for the store – over 2000 base LED fit- tings for the trading floor as well as all external lighting,” he says. A unique feature of the lighting is that a 3000 K colour temperature was specified, as opposed to the usual 4000 K for this sort of environment. “This adds lots of warmth to the store, providing a totally different retail experience,” he says. “Leroy Merlin was very specific about the required lux levels on the trading floor, so we carried out a general layout across the board before all the shelves and racking were installed and once they were up we were very close to what was required. “Despite the usual minor challenges, which are common on a project of this size, Province Lighting is very excited about the overall re- sult of this project and the aggressive rollout from Leroy Merlin, and hopes to be involved in future stores,” says Murphy.

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LiD Q3 - 2018