Barry Island 2018

The seaside town of Barry Island has undergone a programme of regeneration in recent years, including a series of public art projects. I was commissioned along with with artist Tom Goddard to deliver a community engagement programme and a lighting project for the Western Shelter on the seafront. The building is grade 2 listed and is home to a number of businesses such as cafes, beach shops and amusements.

We consulted widely with local traders and community groups as well as running a series of workshops all about light with the local primary school. The result is a permanent interactive lighting scheme that makes a feature of the ten pairs of Tuscan columns that dominate the building’s façade as they curve along the 55 metre frontage. Starting at sunset, the default lighting pattern is a series of waves of colour that move slowly from west to east. As pedestrians enter the building, the movement triggers a change in the lighting sequence to a spectrum of colour that follows you as you walk through the shelter, tracking west to east or the reverse depending on your direction of travel.

The launch event took the form of a parade involving many of the people we’d consulted with during the design phase including former Butlins redcoats, local dog walkers and a knitting group, the ‘Barry hookers’. There was a samba band leading the parade and a sing-song led by the redcoats leading up to a speech by the Mayor and a count down to the switch on.

We worked closely with specialist lighting company Lite Ltd who specified and supplied the lighting fixtures and also with Floodlighting and Electrical Services Ltd who installed the lighting and associated control gear.