Looking up from the departure lounge floor at the glorious hanging tribute to Bristol’s finest aviation legacy, Concorde, it is hard to imagine that this was just a concept less than six months previous.
When an opportunity came up to design an inventive and unique luminaire to hang from the departure lounge, Connected Light rose to the challenge ceiling coming up with a novel way to honour the supersonic passenger jet.
Connected Light have a long history with Bristol Airport and Concorde, having supplied lighting for both runways and terminals for over 10 years and specified lighting for the actual Concorde flight deck in the early 90s. Through the use of the latest lighting technology, Connected Light are trusted with increasing lighting efficiency and aesthetics in a number of airport locations.
The concept for this project was to design a luminaire for suspension from the ceiling of the departure lounge to illuminate the seating area of the coffee house. Concorde’s profile was deemed to be an appropriate and iconic shape for the light structure.
“We had the freedom to be completely innovative with this project.” Remarked Tony Ludlow of Connected Light. “Bristol Airport required a one of a kind light fitting as a centre piece to the terminal and as a means of illuminating the seating area”
Bristol Airport’s Head of Engineering, Fraser Dury commented: “We wanted to enhance the passenger experience within the departure lounge by increasing the lighting levels. The location we chose is above the main seating area and visible from both the first floor and mezzanine level, so the idea of doing something a bit different and creating a talking point for passengers developed. Taking the iconic shape of Concorde for inspiration made sense because of the strong links between the aircraft and Bristol.”
Connected Light designed the concept of a 9 metre aluminium frame work of Concorde’s outline. This was to be decorated with the latest LED light sources and controls for both illumination of the immediate area below and to highlight the features of the luminaire itself.
LED floodlights were used in place of the engines. These high powered LEDs flood the area directly below them with a cool white light drawing the eye upwards to the feature. The aluminium frame work itself is subtly decorated with colour changing LED strip lighting, programmable by remote control, to accentuate all the original curves of the jets architecture.
