The subterranean committee rooms of the Canadian Parliament’s West Block in Ottawa, Canada, achieve an incredible feat—making an underground space not only highly functional, but enjoyable to occupy. A 2021 IALD Award of Excellence winner, its lighting design, by the Office for Visual Interaction (OVI), befits a formal government space and more than meets high definition broadcast television lighting specifications.
With unforgivingly low 9-ft. to 12-ft. ceilings, the challenge was met by the creation of custom ceilings that also house MEP, security, and acoustic elements. Because meetings there are broadcast, each seating position had to be lit to high-definition camera standards. Glowing, star-shaped ceiling panels, luminous coffers, and perimeter wall wash illumination provide ambient light while recessed, adjustable downlights create horizontal and vertical lux levels to separate subjects from their background, all in a flattering 4000K color temperature. Photometric calculations and aiming-angle studies paired with internal and onsite mockups were necessary to fulfill the lighting requirements and to perfect the proportions of the star-shaped panels and illuminated coffer ceilings.
This article appeared in the March 2022 issue of Architectural SSL magazine.
