The exterior of Embassy Gardens comprises several different elements including public spaces and private residential amenities.
At street level, the landscape is an extension of the Nine Elms Linear Park, which connects Battersea in the East to Vauxhall in the West. One of the challenges for the design team was to create the impression of a seamless lighting installation for the exterior of the Embassy Gardens landscape and the public which was in keeping with both completed and future developments in Nine Elms.
Ambient lighting is provided by multiple adjustable, lockable luminaire heads mounted onto lighting columns, which reduce visual clutter by minimising the total number of lighting columns required in the park. Specific features of the Embassy Gardens landscape were highlighted, such as the natural waterbodies, the large bronze bowl sculpture, play spaces, signage, and wayfinding elements.
Within the central Ravine Courtyard, a more subdued ambience is created by illuminating the footpaths with low glare lighting bollards and highlighting selected trees landscape elements.
A unique feature of the development is the Sky Pool, which is focal point of Embassy Gardens. The Sky Pool is the world’s first fully transparent clear cast acrylic swimming pool which spans across two adjacent residential buildings which are 15 metres apart and 10 floors above Ground level.
This clear acrylic structure presented significant challenges for the lighting design team, due to the transparency and reflective nature of the pool itself. The pool lighting comprises several discrete elements. Within the pool , submersible wet niche pool lights are flush recessed into the stainless-steel pool basins on either side of the suspended transparent clear acrylic structure. These luminaires illuminate the volume of the water from within. In addition, IP68 rated cool white linear luminaires are concealed under stair nosings and the recessed steps within the pool to provide local task lighting at changes in level. Additional visual emphasis is provided by IP68 rated low glare, high powered linear luminaires which graze light horizontally across the bottom of the pool basin from either side. An opaque pool cover encloses the clear acrylic Sky Pool when not in use. When the pool is in this dormant mode, narrow beam LED projectors mounted on wall mounted lighting bars located on the façade of the buildings beneath the pool illuminate the underside of the suspended pool structure. The Sky Pool lighting is fully dimmable and has a number of pre-set lighting scenes that can be recalled at the touch of a button.
There are two roof terraces and a Sky Bar linked to the Sky Pool at Level 10. The roof terraces have large, raised planters containing mature olive trees. Ambient lighting for the pool deck is provided by concealed linear LED light sources integrated into the planters. This is supplemented by miniature LED spotlights mounted adjacent to the Olive trees which cast light through the branches of the trees to create dappled light effects on the pool deck.
Both buildings are connected by a separate bridge which sits alongside the Sky Pool. The bridge is lit by an array of miniature ground recessed stainless steel LED surface washers which provide good levels of horizontal illuminance on the bridge deck.
