Fairlawns Hotel & Spa

Background

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Fairlawns Hotel and Spa is one of the UK’s top 25 hotels. It is located in the West Midlands just north-east of Walsall and situated in rolling countryside. The hotel, itself, is set in nearly 12 acres (2.5 Ha) of landscaped grounds.

The hotel is family run and the son of the original owner decided that after many years of use, the floodlighting of the three exterior car parks should be replaced and upgraded.

Other exterior areas such as the wooden bollards, signage and tree lighting would also be replaced. Ancillary exterior pathways such as the staff entrance and access passageways were also to be upgraded.

Challenges

WHAT WAS INVOLVED

The safety of guests and staff after dark is paramount where pedestrians may mix with slow moving cars. Hotel guests and visitors range from the very young to those with possibly impaired vision therefore good levels of illumination are required with a high degree of uniformity.

The challenge is to combine these requirements with the need to maintain the dark tranquillity of the rural countryside. The light fittings should also be attractive and not too “functional” in appearance.

The Solution

HOW WE ACHIEVED THE RESULT

To blend with the rural surroundings and give a welcoming feel to the lighting, 3000K LEDs were used throughout. This is also more ecologically and Dark Skies friendly than Cooler LED temperatures. There were several different areas to be considered and each required its own solution.

Approach and Entrance roadway
As guests approach from the Little Aston Road, A454, the gold and white “Fairlawns” entrance signs are illuminated by unobtrusive, low glare recessed Mini Corniche. The inner roadway is illuminated using the sleek, contemporary Signature post-top lantern on 5m conical columns. The Signature waveguide combined with the patented transition zone technology means that you can achieve comfortable, low glare lighting combined with the desired lighting levels.

Car Parks
These three areas were illuminated using 6m columns in order to minimise the number required. Here, 33 of the efficient City Max were used. These optically efficient post-top units are ideal for illuminating large areas whilst emitting zero upward light

Staff Entrance/Exit passageways
The passageways are almost constantly in use and are illuminated using the Denver ID wall mounted luminaires, which also benefits from the patented transition zone. The doorway and fire escape areas along the route are also fitted with “Emergency” versions of the Denver iD Wall.

Particularly useful in this type of location is the option of five different distributions available for the Denver ID. Having a wide choice of distributions means flexibility when meeting the site’s requirements.

Other external areas
Lighting some of the more important trees was achieved using the compact Nano XL floodlight to illuminate the foliage. The existing wooden bollards were fitted with the Team Round lantern at 600mm above ground.