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A new building for the Welsh National Assembly

Cardiff, Galles

In March 2006 (St. David’s day, 1st of March), Her Majesty the Queen opened the Senedd building for the National Assembly for Wales (NAfW), designed by Architects Richard Rogers Partnership (RRP), BDSP Partnership and ARUP.

The design strategy for the building reflected in the lighting design and could broadly be described using the following three step approach:

1. Maximise and control natural daylight penetration;
2. Use of energy efficient light sources;
3. Link controls to deliver the best cross-over between natural and artificial.

A predominant feature is the Debating Chamber, located in the heart of the building. This space, where proceedings will be broadcast live, is unmistakably meant to be read and perceived as a daylit space by both Assembly Members and the watching public. The vision of the design team was to allow internal conditions of the Chamber to vary naturally with the passage of time, thus providing a vital psychological connection with the outside.

Daylight is reflected into the heart of the Chamber below via a combination of light shelves around the base of the lantern, a suspended conical mirror and a series of concentric aluminium rings which make up the chamber funnel.

Following some early investigations on CTB filters, the installed design is based on the use of 70W 4200K ceramic discharge metal halide CDM-T lamps. The fixture - Pixel Plus - was modified to accept the 70W CDM-T lamp.

The result is a Chamber lit by a single ring of 80 fixtures with 70W CDM-T metal halide lamps, recessed into the base of the funnel and set at oblique angles, with the aluminium rings starting immediately above.