Swiss Re Headquarters, London 

30 St Mary Axe, affectionately known as �the Gherkin� is London�s first environmentally progressive tall building and, at 180m, the second tallest building in the City of London.

The building is radical � technically and architecturally � and the design minimises energy consumption by maximising natural ventilation and daylight penetration. The striking lightwells, which curve round the building, draw fresh air up through convection enabling natural ventilation cooling for almost half the year and reducing the requirement for conventional air conditioning. The lightwells also allow daylight to penetrate deep into the office areas enabling artificial lighting levels to be reduced.

The lighting management system is as innovative, flexible and efficient as the building that contains it. Controls within the shell and core areas provide addressable switching of lighting circuits through a combination of automatic based commands and presence detectors within lobbies and toilets. The shell and core controls were extended seamlessly into office areas as part of the Swiss Re and tenant fit-outs to create a single, building-wide integrated system.

Delmatic DELi (Dali) modules individually switch, dim and monitor each luminaire within the office spaces while low-profile multi-sensors throughout the offices measure both occupation and light levels, providing daylight-linked dimming and presence-related switching of lighting.

In keeping with the energy-conscious principles of the design, Delmatic have worked closely with Steve Browne, Property Services Associate for 30 St Mary Axe Management Company to continually reevaluate the systems parameters in order to optimise lighting levels and ongoing energy efficiency.

The system provides programmable testing and monitoring of emergency lighting via the Dali network and logs the pass/fail characteristics of each emergency lamp and battery.  The lighting management system also integrates with the disabled toilet call alarm system: pull-cord alarms connect direct to the Delmatic control modules which broadcast alarm messages across the lighting management network for display at the head-end PC and on the security room alarm panel.

Lighting within the entrance lobby and plaza benefits from scene-setting switching and dimming with custom scene-set panels providing a selection of five lighting scenes with master raise and lower features.

The complete lighting management system is managed and monitored through graphical network software which details the active status of every lamp, while changes to switching and dimming arrangements are effected through the graphical software. Consultant � Hilson Moran

Consultant � Hilson Moran

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