Acoustic Lighting Rafts Featured at Cumbria Constabulary

Towering over Durranhill, Carlisle’s new divisional police headquarters building makes a striking addition to the City skyline. The new £8m headquarters for officers and staff in north Cumbria has transformed the look of the south of the city.

SAS International’s System 600 Acoustic Lighting Rafts were installed on the ground, first and second floors of the building.  Working with Taylor Young Architects and DSSR, Building Services Consulting Engineers, SAS International supplied the flat design rafts to provide acoustic absorption in the building, as well as lighting provision.

Phil Sykes, Associate of Taylor Young Architects, says: “The building achieved a BREEAM Excellent rating helped by the thermal mass of exposed concrete coffer soffits.  The suspended rafts below the coffers are fitted with both up and down lighting and acoustic absorption pads to provide a high quality working environment.”

David Broadbent, Associate of DSSR, Consulting Engineers commented, “The lighting design utilised High Frequency T5 Lamp Technology together with Dali Lighting Controls with the lighting rafts incorporating occupancy and daylight sensors. The design created a challenge in providing the services to the rafts to meet the aesthetic qualities, but also to provide the client with an energy efficient, flexible and maintainable lighting design solution.”

Featuring recessed luminaires, the rafts are centred and suspended within barrel coffers, leaving large areas of the concrete soffit exposed.  This enables free air movement to the structural slab for natural thermal mass cooling.

The rafts have perforated face panels to provide acoustic absorption. Acoustic pads within the panels absorb reflected sound from the structural soffit.

Manufactured in metal, the durable gloss finish on the rafts provides a cost effective solution and lifecycle cost benefits. Factory formed apertures integrating lighting and acoustic comfort in one unit further reduces capital and installation cost.

The project was shortlisted for the Environmental Sustainability Category in the CCI North West Regional Construction Awards 2009, and acknowledged as Highly Commended.

Click here to view case study. 

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