Manchester Unity Dental Suite commissions period style Custom Pendants with Casambi wireless dimming

The Aglo Custom Manufacturing team worked with 2B Designed and Smile Solutions to engineer and manufacture  bespoke luminaires in the Manchester Unity Building in Melbourne, Victoria. Smile Solutions, Melbourne’s home of dentistry, is Australia’s largest private dental practice. Occupying five levels of the Manchester Unity Building, all which are of great significance within the art deco moment and Australia’s national architectural heritage, Smile Solutions was passionate and dedicated to preserving period sympathetic fittings across the building. Since relocating to the Manchester Unity Building in 2003, Smile Solutions has expended considerable resources on restoration to maintain Melbourne’s best-loved art deco edifice.

With this in mind, the dome luminaires in the lift lobbies were conceptualised by 2B Designed to reflect the period and style of the building and drew inspiration from the original stained glass ceiling in the elevator car. The dental suite hexagonal fittings were also designed to be sympathetic to the building’s heritage and provide suitable illumination to meet the dental suites requirements. Both features utilised a variety of manufacturing techniques and were manufactured from stainless steel, custom cut glass and formed acrylic diffusers materials Aglo produced to suit. In total, 16 hexagonal dental suite custom pendants and 8 lift lobby dome lights were produced.

As the cost for rewiring the building for dimming control would have been exorbitant, Aglo presented a solution for wireless dimming. Latest technology Casambi wireless control modules were integrated with the LED driver within the custom features. Dimming therefore, is controlled for all pendants via the client’s smart device using the Casambi app and allows for a host of fully controllable functions such as automated timer scheduling.

The project was completed across a 6-month period from initial design concepts shared from 2B Designed, to engineering detailed designs, shop drawings, finished samples for approval and ultimately overseeing the installation of the final features.

Image Credit: Roger Thompson