George Pritchard, Technical director at Scenariio, a Derby-based smart buildings and IT specialist, discusses the company’s work to install LED lights, environmental sensors, and an emergency lighting system, at The Saplings, a new children’s bereavement counselling centre at Treetops Hospice in Risley, Derbyshire. The ‘human-centric’ lights adjust their colour temperature throughout the day, replicating the changing white tones of daylight – from a blue-white in the mid-morning/early afternoon, to warmer yellow-white in the late afternoon/evening, complementing both the young occupants’ own inbuilt circadian rhythms, and their activities within the centre, by changing the colour temperature to match whatever they are doing.
It was very clear from the moment we turned up at Treetops Hospice just eight miles away from our office in Derbyshire that this wasn't going to be an ordinary job. It was the first day of BBC Children in Need's DIY: SOS's Big Build, and we'd been invited to install the lighting throughout the programme's latest project — a Children's Bereavement Therapy and Counselling Centre.
The hospice, which was established 40 years ago, was looking for somewhere that young people who had just lost a close relative could go in order to work through their grief. In response, the scheme's architects drew up plans for a 170 m2 single-storey building featuring three counselling rooms, a therapy room, and a multi-functional space where families can meet and socialise. It would be a safe space, relaxing and comfortable, and designed to be fully accessible and neurodiversity-friendly. Treetops also wanted it to include technology that would enable it to operate with low running costs.
With the plans agreed, it was over to BBC Children in Need, which arranged for dozens of trade companies, from bricklayers to plasterers, carpenters, and landscape gardeners, to donate time, products, and skills to make the scheme a reality. For our part, we spent four days on site fitting LED lights, environmental sensors, and an emergency lighting system, linking them not to the usual 240V electrical cabling, but to a network of ethernet cables.
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