The company's redbrick headquarters has been adorned with a magnificent arrangement featuring a giant glowing garland 60ft in diameter. The garland, which was constructed out of 300 Christmas trees and weighs around a tonne, is threaded with 10,000 sparkling white lights and 20 red bows, each 5ft in width. Clusters of illuminated berries have been created out of red bulbs woven into wire mesh spheres, while a giant neon bow perches atop the glowing structure. The Imagination building itself is the backdrop for the garland, flooded in a wash of blue light.
On the first day of the festive month, staff were greeted inside Imagination with a beautifully decorated atrium. The walls of the five-storey expanse have been flooded in a festive red light and the floor scattered with holly gobos, while minimalist sculptured fur trees set atop stands of berries frame the space.
The construction of the lighting display took place over a period of 48 hours and was launched on the first of December. Imagination once again enlisted the efforts of a team of electricians, riggers, cleaners, neon fixers, tree decorators, metal workers and foresters, who used a 20-tonne crane and giant cherry pickers to construct the decorations and transform the building.
The garland display follows on from a strong tradition of festive lighting at Imagination and this year's design along with many others will be included in an exhibition entitled 'London Lights'. The exhibition will take place in the New London Architecture (NLA) area of the Building Design Centre (next door to Imagination's headquarters in Store Street) - from 30 November 2005 to 21 January 2006 - with free entry.
Imagination's lighting department have illuminated some of London's most famous and beautiful buildings and the 'London Lights' exhibition will feature a number of these projects, including the spectacular displays at the BT Tower, and the Lloyds of London and Tesco's Hoover buildings.
(Lee Baldock)
