Project Name: Auburn Reading Alfresco

Practice Name: Ground Ink Landscape Architects

Project Address: Parramatta Road, Auburn

Demonstrate that a professional lighting design was undertaken for this project?

The lighting design was undertaken as a collaboration between LightStudio MG (Michel Goupy) and Andre Tammes. 

What was the main design objective for the lighting scheme?

To convert an uninspiring public space into a night-time destination with increased foot-fall. To provide a family-safe, attractive and celebratory space which not only creates a welcome prelude for cinema goers, but also encourages potential extended use of the F&B and other retail outlets at night.

Showcase how lighting enhances the use and experience of the space after dark?

When seen from the busy adjacent Parramatta Road, the space previously lacked prominence at night. The new lighting draws the eye and reveals the full impact of the plaza as the visitor enters the space from the car park. Graphic lighting of the twin level canopies creates distant visibility. A careful balance of luminanc (‘brightness’) values between the background light levels and those of the ‘trees’, the water feature and the delineating lighting of the benches, ensures prominence of these key landscape elements.

Demonstrate how lighting complements the design of the space by day?

An early decision was made to use an aerial catenary system to provide the majority of the necessary ‘general’ lighting, in compliance with AS1158, Category P6. This avoided the need for any column or bollard lighting at ground level, thereby leaving the space unencumbered and incorporating only the lighting elements which celebrate the landscape scheme and the night-site as a whole. Additionally, a warm 3000K colour temperature is used throughout to provide a sense of welcoming glow, relative to the surrounding street and approach lighting.

Highlight lighting creativity, problem-solving and thinking-outside-the-box?

The major lighting design challenge was the development of a catenary luminaire which would, without creating glare, not only provide the necessary lux level and uniformity of light distribution at ground level but do so in a manner which contributes to the celebratory quality of the site. The solution was based on the use of a suitably rated LED light engine, located in the lower section of a perforated cylinder, internally painted blue, with a secondary blue LED light source in the upper section which enables the cylinder to radiate a blue twinkle when viewed from below, at semi-horizontal angles.

How did you take Dark Sky considerations (prevention of lighting pollution) into account for this project?

With the exception of the low output, decorative, LED ‘bud lights’ in the trees, all lighting is directed at below horizontal or is shielded from any angle above horizontal.

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