The City Road Basin, a former industrial site, has benefited from a multi-million pound investment to create public access to one of the largest open stretches of water in North London, complete with a newly landscaped public park facing onto the canal.

At a special Christmas launch, hundreds of local residents were among the first to enjoy the new square and landscape park, which overlook the Regent’s Canal.

Kingfisher Lighting worked alongside URS Corporation to design and supply a lighting scheme for the public area to the front of the basin. The first task was to design and present a lighting concept for the City Basin. Kingfisher’s team of experienced designers used state of the art 3D visualisation software to provided a simulated perspective of the lighting scheme including a fly through to demonstrate specific aspects of the lighting scheme. This was supported with a 2D presentation of the site layout depicting associated lighting values and necessary compliance with the lighting specification.

To complement the contemporary architectural theme and the given site layout, Kingfisher Lighting proposed Logika. The defined lines of the luminaire would reflect the architectural design whilst the extensive range of optics would ensure any given lighting task could be achieved with complete cohesion.

Given the required lighting specification, the design team chose twin mounted Logika 1s fitted with a combination of 70W and 100W Ceramic Metal Halide lamps. The high lumen output from the respective light source ensured an energy efficient lighting scheme whilst the high colour temperature created a cool and crisp night time environment.

To minimise the number of lighting columns, the design team proposed a twin, offset mounting arrangement coupled with an asymmetric lighting distribution with a beam emergence of 65° mounted at 8m providing lighting to the main areas, with a cycle path optic mounted at 6m for the pathway running either side of the basin.

To ensure complete cohesion, the Logika 1s were mounted on a co-ordinated column and architectural offset bracket arrangement featuring a finial which incorporated a blue LED. The columns and brackets were finished with a polyester powder coating to coordinate with the chosen RAL colour of the Logika 1s.

The opening of the new space is the first step in a wider ‘master plan’ for the City Road Basin. The plan will set about creating a mixed use development balancing commercial floorspace and residential accommodation. Improved public access and the redevelopment of existing green space will certainly open the basin to all. In developing the master plan, Islington Council worked with Bennetts Associates Architects, and other key landholders around the basin, including City Road Basin Limited (a partnership between British Waterways and Miller Developments), and Fidelity Investments.