Urbis has its roots firmly planted in urban soil in every way, from the Latin origins of the word urbis, meaning 'of the city' to its location in Cathedral Gardens, a new green space in Manchester's Millennium Quarter. Designed by Ian Simpson Architects, Urbis cost £30m to construct and is visually striking from whichever way it is approached. Clad entirely in glass, the walls of the soaring 35 metre landmark reflect the everyday life of the surrounding city. With four spacious floors of permanent themed exhibitions, the facility also boasts a restaurant and a bar that offer breathtaking views.
The lighting design for Urbis was a result of a collaboration between three associate designers at Maurice Brill Lighting Design: Mark Ridler, Rob Honeywill and Kevin Theobald, who also co-ordinated the project. The complexity of Urbis' attractions presented the designers with a need for a dimming and control system capable of handling architectural and theatrical lighting as well as cues for interactive audio-visual presentations. Even though the lighting systems were designed on a stand-alone basis for each floor, the lighting designers specified an ETC Unison dimming system, including interface units and preset station control panels, for the entire project. A Unison portable LCD station was also provided for the commissioning process. "ETC's Unison system allows for interplay between theatrical and architectural lighting, so it was a natural choice for this design, as it enabled us to handle all elements using only one system," said Honeywill.
Three ETC Express 250 Lighting Playback Controllers (LPCs) are also used in the building, all of which were programmed with an ETC Expression 3 console, again provided for the commissioning.
When entering the exhibition, visitors are transported via 'The Glass Elevator', a 60-second sky glide up the building, to 'Arrive', an area that recreates the shock of entering a city for the first time. This exhibit runs an A/V show and, to integrate it with the lighting, Theobald used MIDI-triggers from the A/V system to communicate and co-ordinate with the lighting playback unit.
Following 'Arrive', visitors can explore 'Change', a floor that explores Manchester's conception and development into the 21st Century, with lighting created by Mark Ridler. Here also, the lighting had to interact with the A/V system - and Unison was pivotal to controlling the interactive, special effects journey 'Global Cities'. More than 40 lighting cues are programmed to run in a five minute show. The cues were reliably synchronised with the projections to 0.1 sec, which was vital to achieve the effects required.
Next is 'Order', lit by Honeywill, which examines how people meet the challenges of living together in urban areas and finally 'Explore', also lit by Ridler, which compares cities from the visitor's imagination to six real-life global cities. At the ground floor, ETC's products have another chance of proving their versatility. Rather unusually, the LPC is used to run motorised signs, and, communicating with a photo cell, it controls a graphic show, where graphic material becomes transparent when energised.
All the ETC equipment was supplied and installed by Enliten - the architectural division of ETC's dealer
