TRILUX lighting shapes the customer experience at GRIDSERVE Markham Vale

As electric vehicle charging becomes an increasingly familiar part of longer journeys, the experience surrounding it matters too. At GRIDSERVE Markham Vale Electric Forecourt, charging time is an opportunity for drivers to step away from their vehicles, shop, have a coffee or simply take a break before continuing their journey.

That thinking shaped the first-floor customer environment and the lighting brief behind it.

TRILUX worked with GRIDSERVE and Dave Dickinson & Associates Limited (DDA) to develop a lighting scheme capable of supporting the different activities taking place across the floor. Creating a warm, relaxed environment was central to the brief, particularly within the lounge and seating areas, while the adjoining retail and food and beverage spaces required lighting suited to more active customer environments.

The challenge was therefore not simply to illuminate one large space, but to use light to give each area its own character while ensuring the floor worked as a whole.

Rather than applying a uniform lighting treatment across the first floor, the scheme responds to how customers use each area.

A combination of 3,000K and 4,000K colour temperatures helps establish subtle changes in atmosphere across the space. Warmer light supports the more relaxed character of lounge and seating areas, while 4,000K configurations provide a brighter visual environment where appropriate.

The distinction helps reinforce the transition between different activities without relying on physical separation. Customers can move naturally between shopping, eating and taking a break, with lighting contributing to the change in mood and function.

This approach also supports an important part of the GRIDSERVE brief: creating an environment specific to Markham Vale while retaining the familiar quality and character of its wider Electric Forecourt network.

Yuvio forms the principal lighting family across the customer-facing environment, with Yuvio Track and Yuvio Twin used in different configurations.

Yuvio Track uses free-form lens technology to provide precise, controlled light distribution, with different beam characteristics available to suit the requirements of the space. Yuvio Twin adds a two-head configuration with oval light distribution, enabling broader areas to be illuminated while retaining the same compact visual language.

At Markham Vale, the combination allows focused and wider distributions to work together across the floor rather than relying on a single lighting effect.

The extensive use of suspended track provides another practical advantage. Luminaires can be positioned and directed according to the layout below, while the system provides flexibility should retail displays, furniture arrangements or other requirements change over time.

Supporting luminaires from the wider TRILUX portfolio provide lighting within back-of-house, circulation and ancillary areas, while TRILUX also supplied emergency lighting as part of the scheme.

TRILUX secured the project through a combination of its proposed lighting solution, commercial approach and an established relationship with the project team.

Working closely with GRIDSERVE and DDA, TRILUX developed the scheme around the architectural layout, operational requirements and relevant brand and franchise considerations. This collaborative approach helped translate the initial brief into a practical lighting solution spanning the varied functions of the first floor.

For GRIDSERVE, the finished installation delivers the coverage and visual quality required while supporting the premium customer environment envisioned for Markham Vale.

Markham Vale reflects how the growth of electric mobility is changing the role of places encountered during a journey. Charging creates time away from the vehicle – and an opportunity to make that time more comfortable and useful.

Here, lighting is part of that experience. Rather than treating the first floor as a single environment, the scheme responds to how people shop, eat, relax and move through the space.

Chris Ward, Retail Operations Manager at GRIDSERVE, said: “Markham Vale was about creating more than somewhere to stop and charge. We wanted the first-floor space to feel like a premium lounge environment, while still meeting the very different needs of the retail areas. The lighting needed to help define those spaces, create the right atmosphere and, importantly, maintain the consistency customers recognise from our other Electric Forecourts. We’re really pleased with the coverage and the overall look and feel that’s been achieved.”

The result is a place designed not simply around charging vehicles, but around the people waiting for them.

Client/end user: GRIDSERVE.

Lighting design/project partner: Dave Dickinson & Associates Limited (DDA).
Lighting: TRILUX.