The Mitchell Library
Location: Glasgow
Client: iGuzzini Illuminazione UK

The Mitchell Library is one of Glasgow's grandest and well known buildings and was a fitting subject for illumination as part of the Council's 'City of Light' Strategy.

Lightfolio were engaged as lighting consultants for the project by iGuzzini Lighting UK who also sponsored the lighting installation. Many site trials were undertaken to estalish both the best light sources and locations for fittings. The highest priority was to sculpt the building with light, revealing the colours of the stonework, the intricate carving and the depth to be found within the facades. The previous lighting scheme consisted of a flat wash of sodium light which did nothing for the building but technology has moved on sufficiently that something better could be achieved.

In the end a combination of T5 fluorescent at 2700K and Ceramic metal halide sources at 3000K and 4200K were used. Light fittings were either concealed, painted to match the fabric of the building or ground recessed. Cable routing was confined to mortar courses and used special fixings that are non destructive to the building fabric.

Views of the Mitchell Library illumnated at night have been used extensively since the building was re-lit and many of these images appear on sites such as google and flickr. The front facade picture was taken by local photographer Jim Moore and is one of the finest photographs we have seen of the Mitchell at night. You can see more of Jim's work by clicking on the icon on the links page of our website.