61 Oxford Street is a striking new mixed-use development on the corner of London’s Oxford and Soho Streets. The building was designed by AHMM architects with a unique undulating glass scheme, inspired by the shop front bay windows of the 19th Century.
The previous building on the site had featured a prominent corner tower, which served as inspiration for a new glass lantern feature. StudioFractal were commissioned to design a light art installation for the lantern, and chose Pharos partner Architainment as the suppliers for the project.
StudioFractal specified the iColor Flex MX gen 2 solution from Philips Color Kinetics; a multi-purpose, high-intensity strand of full-colour LED nodes able to generate extraordinary effects, patterns and video on almost any surface. 45 custom length strands ranging from 26 nodes to 71 nodes were installed within the lantern, fixed to a specially designed frame that follows the curves of the undulating glass.
A Pharos LPC X is used to manage the content for the strands. Working from StudioFractal’s design drawings, Architainment mapped 2,759 RGB nodes (8,277 channels) of control; a particularly complex process in a three-dimensional design.
A series of Scenes based on both the seasons and nature were created to run seamlessly throughout the year, with specific themed scenes to mark celebrations and holidays like Valentine’s Day. Architainment programmed all the timelines and triggers on the LPC X, and worked closely with StudioFractal to commission the final solution into operation.
61 Oxford Street has subsequently won the prestigious RIBA National Award 2016 and the RIBA London Award 2016.
