The evolution of lighting with the advent of LEDs, allows achieving a balance between visual comfort and a good aesthetic.
Shashi Prabhu & Associates was founded as a sole-proprietorship firm in 1967 and later expanded into a multi-disciplinary private partnership company in 1981 and is today one of the leading multi – Architecture, Engineering and Project Management companies & disciplinary design firms in India. The firm has, to date, delivered numerous high-profile projects in the country which went on to acclaiming local, national and international accolades.
Together, with a talented team of over 100 Architects, Engineers and Interior Designers led by three active partners, the firm has successfully delivered numerous high – profile projects in the country such as Wankhede Stadium, Lilawati Hospital, Hirkissondas Hospital, SVP Inoor Stadium in Mumbai & Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Delhithat housed the Asian Games in 1992, The Sports City in Hyderabad that played the Afro-Indian games in 2002.
Amol Prabhu joined SPA as one of the partners of the firm in 2005. He brings over 22 years of experience in managing projects using structured and scientific approach especially essential for managing mission critical & time-sensitive ones. He has also been actively involved in reorganising the company structure and setting up standardisation platforms in design, management and financials to expand the firm into a professional entity.
Prabhu is capable of providing broad spectrum of services right from architecture, interior design, engineering and project management consulting services. It was during his tenure that SPA is able to cater to a wide variety of clients in sports, healthcare, hospitality, infrastructure and other sectors without sacrificing the quality and efficiency of service. While sharing the details about one of his recent projects, he emphasises as how challenging was planning about lighting in that particular project.
The NSCI Gymnasium is a 16,000 expanse of high activity. The mind needs to be as focused and committed as the body. A slight drop in concentration can led to an injury. Keeping this in mind, it was our target to ensure that everything in the space blended seamlessly with the intended activity, during daytime and night time, alike, with the mission to invigorate, activate and excite.
Planning the lighting for the space was challenging; it needed detail to attention to the minute level. Avoiding Shadows, free flow of vision, adaptation of colour temperatures based on the tasks on hand and of course the electricity consumed in such a space. Thanks to the evolution of lighting and inclusion of LED technology, we were able to achieve a balance between visual comfort and a good aesthetic. We used the best available LED lights and components from all across Europe. Brands such as XAL & Zumtobel from Austria, DGA from Italy, Osram from Germany were the preferred suppliers.
Areas featured in the images
Main reception – volume made the voices echo and it was a problem, to which we had a solution from XAL Austria. They offered us a product called Sonic – With a sound Absorber fitted around it – this reduced the echo. The Zumtobel spotlight on the stone reflected a warm glow and gave the space a natural tone.
Changing rooms & Locker Rooms – These were large and a high quality of lighting from XAL, which kept them feeling alive and refreshed, was provided. We equipped the changing areas with Linear Profiles with an OPAL diffuser to provide even levels of lighting to resemble the natural colour of light.
The salon had to be the most well illuminated space in terms of vertical and horizontal illumination to ensure that the member’s features as crisp as they possibly could. Providing 3 levels of lighting as well as a pleasing aesthetic had to be done to give any high-end salon a run for its money. We used LED Strips in the coves from Light Inside, LED Downlights from DGA, Mirror Lights from Osram and rope highlighters from Wever & Ducre.
Yoga Room – To recreate the feeling of the morning light in which Yoga is best practiced, the lighting levels were high and the uniformity was close to 90%. XAL supplied their VELA round which resembled 3 suns and illuminated the space with direct and indirect light which brought calm to the space.
SPA – Using Zumtobel floor recessed lights equipped with a wallwasher lens were used to illuminate the walls with an interesting streak of light gave the feeling of being in a natural surrounding with reduced levels of lighting.
Gym Area – The striking contrast was brought out by the use of Blue LED strips that were used throughout the gym and visible from the car park. It was a challenge to create absolute straight lines which were over 25 metres long without a drop in lighting. Thanks to the constant voltage power supply technology from Meanwell, Taiwan, we were able to achieve uniform levels of light output and create the feature that excited the club’s project team in the first place. The streak of a striking blue light that could catch the attention of a passer-by from over 50 metres away.
