With the days being a little gloomy recently we decided it was a good to time to start thinking about the lighting. This has been a tricky task as you never really know how much light you may need, but it is rather expensive so getting too much in would be wasteful.

As a basic test we mounted the lights on planks in the ceiling to get an idea of the spread and feel of the light they gave off. This helped us work out how far apart the units would need to be spaced and which areas might be difficult when installing.

As part of our mission to minimize our energy consumption we decided to opt for LED lighting throughout. These lights use a very low wattage while still outputting a lot of light. They also last a lot longer than traditional bulbs with running times of 100,000 to 200,000 hours. Great news! No one enjoys changing light bulbs after all.

Outside the building the ground work has started which will very quickly make a huge visual difference to the build. Due to the building being so close to the river there has to be an allowance for excess water to flow freely and not displace the ground work itself.

In order to achieve this several large crates were lowered into a pit lined with a water-permeable material and concrete laid on top. This system allows excess water to pass through the material and sit in these chambers without disturbing the ground structure. This water can then seep back out as the rest of the ground dries.

Next we have the large window at the back to install and more electrics going in. Currently the stained glass window at the front is being redesigned, we shall have images of that soon … so keep checking the blog!