dpa Lighting Consultants were approached in August 2013 by the BBC DIY SOS Big Build team to assist them with the speciality lighting for a new play centre in Peterborough for the Little Miracles charity, as part of a special edition of the programme for this year’s Children in Need. The Little Miracles charity helps children with additional needs and life limiting conditions, so we were very happy to be involved in such a rewarding project.

The concept was to take an existing local plot, which had been generously donated to the charity by Peterborough Council, and turn it into a more attractive, functional and stimulating environment for the children. The existing building was not fit for purpose, so this was knocked down and a new building was constructed in its place, together with a transformation of the surrounding landscape.

As with any project, many different consultants, contractors and specialists were required in order to deliver the final building, all of which kindly donated their time and expertise to make the building a reality.

Our brief was to work closely with the BBC DIY SOS team to create stimulating zones using low energy light sources, specifically LED, as the charity needed to minimise future maintenance and running costs. We sought to introduce visually interesting lighting elements throughout the centre, such as the colour changing lighting within the Sensory Room, linked to musical control pads operated by the children.

The project was restricted to a very tight timescale; initial concept to handover was completed in 4 weeks, with 9 days on-site to complete the build, which was achieved with great effort from all involved. We had tremendous help from a number of lighting manufacturers, all of whom generously donated not only their equipment but also their time, support and advice. We would like to thank the following manufacturers for their contribution.

iGuzzini UK
Insta UK
Light Projects
Light Graphix
Lucent Lighting
Philips Lighting UK
Rako Lighting Controls
Storm Lighting Solutions (RZB Lighting)
DAL UK
KKDC UK
Encapsulite

The end result was very well received by all and hopefully will service the needs of the local community for many years.