Case study: Niketown — just done it
Nike’s flagship Niketown store on Oxford Circus in London
Nike has recently reopened its flagship Niketown store on Oxford Circus in London following an extensive redevelopment. Helvar lighting control has been used across the reportedly largest Nike store in the world at the time to deliver a creative and inspiring shopping environment.
Niketown covers approximately 3900sqm over four floors, offering a range of services and experiences. The refurbishment forms part of a series of planned new store openings across the UK, designed to provide a ‘premium experience’ across the company’s key sports categories.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
When refurbishing its Niketown store, the sporting retailer wanted to provide more than just a shop window for its products. The task for consultants EEP and lighting designer BDP was to create an environment that allowed it to display its entire range of clothing and footwear amongst surroundings fitting of the pedigree of its brand ambassadors – some of the world’s finest athletes. Lighting design was central to delivering this atmosphere and EEP and BDP turned to Helvar in specifying a comprehensive control system.
As Matt Thomas of Helvar, explains: “Naturally, Nike wanted to create a high impact design but, with the store operating across several floors, simplicity in operation and maintenance was vital to ensuring a seamless transition between lighting scenes. As well as decorative lighting for retail sales areas, the store incorporates a ‘service professionals’ zone where one-to-one advice is given to customers whose sporting action can be filmed, in order to match them precisely to the right products. This meant we had to combine decorative architectural lighting with the exacting requirements of a more commercial lighting system in certain areas. “
To fulfil this design brief, BDP specified a combination of Helvar’s DALI compatible, Ethernet backed 920 routers, 458 modular, multi-channel, inductive dimmers and paired them with easy to operate push-button control panels and programming points. “The beauty of our latest IMAGINE and DlGlDlM rack and router ranges,” Matt adds, “is their modular capability. The nature of a building such as that on Oxford Street means that it has gone through many guises over the years. With our DALI kit, installers are able to carry out a compact installation, working with existing cabling, without the need for a disruptive and costly complete rewire.”