This 2-storey mass timber structure is situated on a 5-acre lot. The building serves as an administration office, industrial facility, warehouse and operations yard for one of Canada’s leading energy companies. The lighting design scope of work included all interior and exterior lighting and controls, which contributed to achievements such as net-zero carbon emissions and LEED certification.

Low-glare architectural area lighting was used to illuminate the parking areas while high-performance flood lights were used in the operations yard. The challenge was providing adequate illumination with the fewest poles possible all while satisfying LEED light polution reduction requirements. We acomplished this by closely analysing both the horizontal and vertical illumination across the site. The lighting was controlled via a simple outdoor wireless control system from Cree Lighting that automatically dims the lights between midnight and 6 am. A temporary manual override via a keypad located in the electrical room.

Natural light is critical for maintaining a healthy circadian rhythm. Although the building was designed to capture as much natural light as possible, the avialability of daylight is greatly diminished during the late fall and winter seasons due to the northern latitude of the site. BIOS LED technology was used in the administrative offices to boost the ‘daytime’ signal normally aquired via natural light through the electric lighting system. BIOS LED technology allowed us to conform to the WELL Buildings criteria for circadian design while also satisfying the stringent energy restrictions associated with a net-zero facility.

For control, we chose the Lutron Ecosystems hard wired digital network. The system was designed to operate based on a ‘scene-select’ concept that allows for dimming pre-sets to be recalled automatically by schedule and/or manually via simple 3-button keypads. A hard-wired system eliminates the need for sensors & gateways enhancing the appearance of the timber structure, and the drivers feature smart technology that provides maintenance alerts as the luminaires reach the end of life.