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Victoria & Albert Museum Garden

iGuzzini was selected by the Special Projects division of A.C. Lighting to supply fixtures for the new John Madejski garden at the Victoria and Albert Museum, in the London borough of South Kensington.

The garden was designed by the multi-award winning firm Kim Wilkie Associates, and opened officially by the Prince of Wales in July 2005.

The new arrangement allows the garden to be used both as a conventional enclosed courtyard, and as a setting for exhibitions, theatre, parties and events. A complete transformation takes place after dark, when the garden is lit up in a dramatically illuminated setting created by KWA in collaboration with Lighting Designer Patrick Woodroffe and with Adam Bassett.

The lighting scheme uses of bands of light around the central ellipse area, iridescent illuminated glass planters around the lawn, and illumination of the museum windows and façades overlooking the garden.

One of the biggest challenges was that of how to light the reveals of the 137 windows along the façades of the surrounding building. Following a series of trials, the choice fell on iGuzzini Radius window fittings with 3000K 70W metal halide lamps, as the powerful blade of light emitted by this combination was found to be most effective in highlighting the reveals and showing off the ornate architecture 2 to best advantage.