Cundall has led the lighting scheme for Printworks in Manchester, a £21 million redevelopment which boasts Europe’s largest digital ceiling screen.
Located in the heart of Manchester’s city centre retail district, this vibrant entertainment and leisure centre has found itself a home in a 150-year-old listed building. The aesthetics only add to what the venue already has to offer. The ceiling screen is a whopping 1000m2 in area, the largest in Europe and first of its kind in the UK, it completely transforms the space.
As its name alludes to, the venue used to be an old newspaper printing house for over 100 years, from 1873 to 1985. In the early days of typography, letterpress printing, wherein letters were printed using movable blocks of metal or wood, was the norm. When designing the external feature wall luminaires, the lighting designers retained this piece of Printworks’ historical significance. To give this effect, they used frosted glass designed to look like printing blocks. The luminaires behind the glass blend into the building façade during the day. At night, it provides an eminent block feature detail. An intimate lighting effect is created at pedestrian-level, with a direct contrast to the RGBW grazed light to the upper tiers of the façade frontage.
From the decorative wall lights to the historic façade, to colour-changing uplights and radial luminaires, every detail combines elegance with functionality. The internal lighting scheme guides visitors through an immersive experience, synchronising with the venue’s digital ceiling screen. Printworks was opened to the public on 21st March 2024 and visitors are spoilt for choice with bars, restaurants, and a cinema as well as an option of a gym or swim session.
“The rich history of the Printworks building has made it such an enjoyable project to do the lighting design for. It is an important building to Manchester, and it is great to see it take on a new energy as a prominent entertainment and leisure venue in the heart of the city,” commented Liz Skelton, Principal Lighting Designer the lead lighting designer on the project. “Being able to incorporate the history of letterpress printing into the lighting design was an important consideration from the get-go, and it is exciting to see it delivered. There is an important retrofit story to tell here as well. Most buildings in the UK are already built, we already know that retrofitting can be lot more sustainable than rebuilding. They often carry a rich history in terms of what they were used for and how they were used. Incorporating this memory for Printworks when designing it was an incredible experience.”
Having a deep understanding of architectural principles is key to Cundall’s lighting design team's approach.
