Bigg Design Transforms a Drab Scottish Underpass With Dazzling LED Lights!

A striking outdoor lighting design for a Scottish city underpass proves that high impact doesn’t have to mean high energy, as this large scale 170 LED lighting installation consumes the equivalent energy of 6 <a href="http://inhabitat.com/philips-to-unveil-the-worlds-first-led-replacement-for-the-75-watt-bulb/">incandescent light bulbs</a>. The impressive space was conceived through a collaboration between the Glasgow based design studios <a href="http://www.biggdesign.co.uk">Bigg Design</a> and <a href="http://www.zero-waste.co.uk">Zero-Waste Design</a>, who successfully transformed the once foreboding underpass in <strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumbernauld">Cumbernauld</a></strong> into a welcoming space that changes color in 4 stages between dusk and dawn, adding a sense of life to their cityscape silhouette wall mural.

The silhouette murals on the underpass walls represent the local skyline of Cumbernauld and include a mixture of the local parks, wildlife, iconic buildings and statues and everyday scenes of people. Hamish Bigg, the designer at BIGG Design stated: " The murals aim to give the illusion that you are walking through an open space, rather than a confined underpass, thus helping to relieve the anxiety often experienced by users."

These designs demonstrate a great way to take city spaces and turn them into 21st century places as the colorful lighting transitions completely transform the atmosphere throughout the day. The LED outdoor lighting changes include orange hues for early sunset, purple hues for twilight, pink hues for late sunset and blue hues for the duration of the night and the stunning environment is completed with starlight roof effects and a 'river' of light that is projected onto the ground.

There are 80 RGB colour changing wall-washing LEDs in the side units to give an even colour spread across the walls. The ceiling unit contains 60 white miniature LEDs for the stars and 30 more powerful blue ones to project the river onto the ground. Although high in number, the LEDs are very efficient and according to tests only use the equivalent of 5 to 6 typical domestic incandescent light bulbs.

The project was commissioned North Lanarkshire Council in Scotland in order to regenerate the area around the Craiglinn roundabout in Cumbernauld and revitalize an area that had been subject to vandalism.

The designers worked with local school children at St Maurice’s High School throughout the project, (from brainstorming in concept development to getting their hands dirty painting the mural of their town), which they hope has enabled them to have a sense of ownership of the space where they pass on their daily journey to school. Hamish Bigg the designer behind Bigg Designs stated: " We worked with students over a series of workshops and introduced them to a real-life design process. We started with site research, mapping of the local area, interviews of local people, understanding user experiences and how could change it for the better. We then introduced the students to a range of design and artistic inspiration, along with research into the cultural highlights of the local area. "

The lighting is designed to withstand the normal issues related to public space and is constructed from rugged aluminium and vandal-resistant polycarbonate housings. Local manufacturers were used throughout the project which also added to the concept of this being a collaborative community project.