Sutton Vane Associates were commissioned to review the existing daylight conditions within the Courthouse building of Lincoln Castle. The purpose of the study was to understand the current impact of daylight within the building, so that the design team could then develop a suitable solution that doesn’t impact on the exhibition, the visitors experience or their ability to comfortably read the displays housed within the newly proposed Magna Carta Pod. The main area of concern in Lincoln Castle and the focus of the daylight study was Courtroom 3 and the associated spaces that connect to the Magna Carta Pod.

The Magna Carta Pod is essentially a black box with lighting levels set low at around 20 lux to protect the light sensitive exhibits within. It wasn’t just a simple case of setting the light levels of adjoining spaces to the same or similar as in some areas there are large decorative windows that flood the space with almost 30,000 lux of daylight. The human eye would not adjust well to this drastic change in light levels, so Sutton Vane Associates suggested a number of potential solutions to improve this and the overall visitor experience. The daylight study proved highly successful and contributed to a far more efficient lighting scheme.