Dominic Meyrick of Hoare Lea Lighting on Centrepoint and Heathrow T3

Light is a familiar tool for communication and marketing for any lighting designer, since lighting at night is an easy way of showing that your building exists.

How you light a building sustainably at night has become a hot topic with planners and environmentalists — you need to get the best win for maximum effect but using minimum power.

With a tall building, it’s all about the long view and the bit you see at a distance is the top — the crown. At Centrepoint in London’s West End we used coloured LEDs to create a blue halo at the top. The higher up you go, the less light encroachment you get from the street, so you just need to touch it with a bit of light at the top.

Colour is very emotive. At Heathrow Terminal 3, Foster & Partners refurbished the entrance to make a new plaza and an entrance annex to Virgin Atlantic’s new check-in area with an ETFE canopy. We lit each of the ETFE pillows to reference Virgin’s corporate colour. But people associated the colour, red, with heat and were putting their hands over their heads as they walked under the canopy. So we changed the colour to purple.