Lighting in Design

ocated withinMidrand’sWaterfall Business Es-

tate, Cell C’s 44 200m

facility includes a main

head office building, a customer service cen-

tre, an operations centre, a distribution warehouse,

call centre facilities and an upmarket canteen. The

campus also includes ample parking and jogging

trails in the rehabilitated wetland.

Lighting in Design

spoke to Chris le Roux of Eksteen & Le Roux (ELR)

Electrical Engineers about his involvement in lighting

this impressive establishment.

Eksteen & Le Roux’s client was AttacqWaterfall

Investment Company (Pty) Ltd; AWIC Business Es-

tate, the developer of the Cell C Campus inWaterfall

City. Despite Cell C’s tenant status, the company

was heavily involved in the project’s design to ensure

that the campus suited its functionality and business

requirements. Bentel Associates International was

the principal agent and architect.

The development was fast tracked and construc-

tion – which began in August 2012 – was completed

by the third quarter of 2013, with occupation at the

end of 2013.The nature and size of the development

and the speed with which it was undertaken re-

quired a high level of collaboration and co-ordination

between the professional teams involved. The brief

from Atterbury regarding lighting was to provide

energy efficient lighting in the areas under its re-

sponsibility. Although there was no requirement to

attain a specific green building rating, the building

itself is contemporary owing to its lightweight exter-

nal framework and the modern materials that were

used in its construction and there was an obligation

to be judicious in the use of energy.

Le Roux explains that Atterbury was responsible

for providing lighting in the common areas, includ-

ing outdoor and indoor parking spaces, common

passages, stairways and toilet facilities. There

was provision for lighting in the tenanted areas,

though Cell C was responsible for funding lighting

that exceeded the specification sanctioned in the

standard tenant allowance.

ELR was required in the initial stages to pro-

vide an outline of the existing, up-to-date lighting

technologies available, including those attached to

fluorescent lighting.Though ELR recommendedT5

lamps for the luminaires in the office areas, Cell C

elected to useT8 lamps in preference. Dennis van

Rooyen of Lighting and Allied Manufacturers, who

was responsible for sourcing the bulk of the lighting

for the entire project, explains that the recessed

low brightness fittings that were chosen (T8 3 by

36 W) have good ballast and are energy efficient.

These were supplied throughout the 23 000 m

of office space. Open channel, vapour proof lu-

minaires with T8 light sources were used in the

basement and substations.

Atterbury specified energy efficient light sources

for the common areas and here, Le Roux ex-

plains, Softlight 800 11 W and Softlight Plus 21 W

downlights using the latest LED technology were

installed in the outdoor parking areas, and in the

passages, toilet facilities and stairways in all the

buildings.

In the common corridors in the office building, an

existing Regent Lighting linear luminaire was modi-

fied to accommodate LED technology. The design

of the luminaires, which ranged in length from 1.2 to

7 metres, suited the corridors and complemented

New campus for Cell C

Photograph by Dudley Bunn.

LiD

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