Forth Valley College
Client
Forth Valley College
Project location
Falkirk, United Kingdom
Project date
2020
Consulting Engineer
AECOM
Contractor
Balfour Beatty Kilpatrick
Zumtobel delivers the perfect solution for Forth Valley College
Forth Valley College’s £78 million Falkirk Campus opened its doors to students for the first time in the summer of 2020, with a little help from Zumtobel’s SLOTLIGHT inflinity slim and LITECOM app-based lighting management system. Zumtobel were introduced to the project by the AECOM design team and worked closely with main contractors, Balfour Beatty Kilpatrick to give support throughout the entire construction. In addition to meeting the very specific glare and lux requirements, Zumtobel ensured the new lighting installation integrated seamlessly with the surrounding architecture.
A Light Place for Learning
State-of-the-art laboratories, a distillation plant and a centre for biotechnology: under the roof of the recently opened Forth Valley College in Falkirk, Scotland, an excellent lighting concept and state-of-the-art room design are combined to create an ultra-modern learning environment. The lighting solution not only adapts seamlessly to the surrounding architecture, it is also precisely tailored to the specific lux levels and glare protection requirements on site. Zumtobel worked closely with the design team at the building infrastructure specialist AECOM from the start. With an investment of 78 million pounds sterling - the equivalent of around 86 million euros - the educational campus in Falkirk is one of the largest publicly funded building projects in Scotland. The location also serves as the new headquarters and completes the ambitious real estate program of Forth Valley College. The unique state-of-the-art facilities cover a wide range of areas of knowledge: a focus is on the natural sciences, mathematics, engineering and construction and also includes, care and nursing, health and sport and the service sector.
State of the art education
The possibilities of the new educational offer are huge, including, laboratories, a drilling platform installed only for training purposes, a distillation plant, a virtual control centre, a centre for biotechnology, workshops for the construction industry, a sports centre and salons for future hairdressers and beauticians where they can gain a practical experience. The future-oriented approach of Forth Valley College enables optimal learning and teaching - with exemplary classrooms, a flexible room usage concept throughout the campus and state-of-the-art technical equipment. Libraries and culinary offers, conference rooms and sports facilities complete the offer.
A trunking system for different applications
Zumtobel selected the SLOTLIGHT infinity slim LED trunking system for the corridors, atria, classrooms and various common rooms on the Falkirk campus. Only 45 mm wide, SLOTLIGHT infinity slim can be used extremely flexibly and adapted to the desired room design. The luminaires use the aesthetics and components of the SLOTLIGHT infinity product family and are easy to maintain. Thanks to the matt material, which is supplied as a continuous cover of up to 50 metres in length, a seamless, a continuous light strip system is created - without interruptions or dark spots.
Sensitive lighting solution underlines the architecture
The installation frames of the SLOTLIGHT infinity slim not only guarantees the uniform appearance of the lighting solution, but also ensures that the luminaire and ceiling are technically and thermally separated from each other. This makes it possible to install the SLOTLIGHT infinity slim in suspended ceilings. The result is a high-quality solution carefully integrated into the architecture with continuous light lines.
Thomas Rodger, Associate Director, Building Engineering at AECOM, Zumtobel's project partner, comments “The simplicity and uniformity of the trunking system make future maintenance easier. At the same time, it meets the functional requirements of the various rooms in the college. "
LITECOM: user comfort meets energy efficiency
The luminaires installed for the Forth Valley College Campus are controlled and regulated with Zumtobel's pioneering LITECOM lighting management system. The open system focuses on user comfort and energy efficiency: it can be controlled via an app, quickly installed, easily commissioned and operated intuitively. LITECOM guarantees maximum flexibility and reduces complexity - as the system combines control, touch panel and software in one. LITECOM makes it possible to integrate, controls and monitor individual lighting solutions, whilst at the same time meeting the specific lighting requirements for aproject. Additional functions can be easily programmed and integrated. The system is also open to any type of control point: classic buttons, as well as, Zumtobel control points, smartphones, tablets or computers are suitable. The intelligent controls makes optimal use of daylight and thus offer the opportunity to save energy responsibly.
Thomas Rodger from AECOM comments: “Zumtobel's LITECOM lighting management system is extremely flexible and can be easily adapted to future uses. This is in line with the theme of Forth Valley College: collaborative and forward-thinking learning and working".
Lighting expertise from the start of the project
Thanks to the excellent cooperation between the lighting specialists at Zumtobel and the design team from AECOM, both companies were able to advance the project specifically and precisely inline with the requirements.
The result is an energy-efficient and sustainable campus in Falkirk, Scotland. The Zumtobel lighting solution with the SLOTLIGHT infinity slim LED trunking system and the LITECOM lighting management system underlines the first-class quality of the educational rooms and creates a creative learning environment at Forth Valley College.
“The cooperation with the Zumtobel team was fantastic. Thanks to the really proactive and collaborative approach, we were able to meet the strict requirements of our client - and at the same time bring out the architecture of the building to its best advantage. It was extremely valuable that we consulted the input from the Zumtobel lighting specialists right from the very beginning - and so we were able to lead the project from concept to completion without any problems"
Thomas Rodger, Associate Director, Building Engineering at AECOM