Client British Land | Date 2017-2026 |
Photographer James Newton | Project Team Mark Major, Benz Roos, Neville de Sa |
Located in the heart of the City of London, linking Liverpool Street with Shoreditch and Old Street, Broadgate has undergone a decade-long transformation led by award-winning developer British Land. Once a predominantly 9–5 corporate district, it has evolved into a vibrant neighbourhood offering work, leisure and culture around the clock.
We were appointed in 2017, recognising the pivotal role lighting would play in placemaking and in supporting increased social and economic activity. For what is now the largest pedestrianised area in the City, we developed a unifying lighting vision for Broadgate’s diverse public spaces.
By carefully balancing light and darkness, texture and colour, our strategy prioritised warmth, clarity, intuitive wayfinding and a strong sense of security, enriched by memorable immersive experiences. The vision was shaped to support the long-term, phased redevelopment of the estate and aligned with the City of London’s Lighting Strategy and emerging Lighting SPD.
Rejecting the former rooftop floodlighting approach, we advocated lower-height, human-scaled lighting to soften the corporate character of the campus. This established a new illuminated ‘datum’: above it, the silhouettes of tall commercial buildings recede; below, a new experience of the public realm emerges as natural light fades, characterised by intimacy, comfort and reassurance.
Texture was central to the vision, particularly the biophilic shadow play cast by trees and planting, offering a gentle counterpoint to the surrounding concrete, glass and steel. The strategy also strengthened the visual relationship between publicly accessible indoor and outdoor spaces, supporting continuity, flow and extended use after dark.
Inspired by Broadgate’s public art programme, the vision culminated in a series of immersive lighting concepts under the theme Theatre of the Street. These concepts offered moments of cinematic expression at key locations, enriching the public realm and animating the campus at night.
Building on this vision, we have since delivered several lighting projects across the Broadgate campus.
Our award-winning design for this unique open public space highlights the park’s layered topography, materials, and planting. Integrated, low-level lighting supports intuitive movement and fosters social interaction, while adaptive seasonal illumination adds texture, atmosphere, and moments of quiet delight.
The external lighting design creates a comfortable, legible, and vibrant environment across retail, office, and social spaces, encouraging easy movement and positive experiences day and night. The interior lighting, anchored by The Cloud—one of the UK’s largest chandeliers—the design provides a strong after-dark identity, human scale, biophilic texture, and warmth – while also supporting sustainability goals.
Drawing inspiration from historical arcades and gallerias lit with daylight, our lighting design for 1 Broadgate’s retail spaces features artificial ‘skylights’ that shift in colour temperature to mirror the natural daylight cycle. Warm in the early morning, neutral at midday, and very warm after sunset, the lights create a dynamic ambience that connects intuitively to the outdoors and softens transitions from 100 Liverpool Street and Eldon Street into the arcade.
Above the retail, the vertical surfaces in the office entrance are subtly illuminated, drawing the eye when looking in from the pocket park on Finsbury Avenue. Conversely, soft uplighting to the trees in the park blurs the boundary when looking out, enhancing the sense of visual continuity and promoting easy flow between indoor and outdoor spaces.
Exchange House
Envisioned by architects SOM as a bridge over the train tracks into Liverpool Street Station, Exchange House features a generous public open space beneath the building. Recognising this undercroft as a vital northern gateway into the campus from Spitalfields and Shoreditch, we restored and refined the original lighting concept to enhance its role as a clear, welcoming entry point after dark. Our design introduces programmable colour-changing downlights, enabling flexible, creative interpretations, while key architectural elements—such as the stairs and the Rush Hour sculpture—are carefully articulated, reinforcing the undercroft’s identity as both a thoroughfare and an important civic space.