Interchange Pavilion is a sculptural landmark at South Eveleigh Village in Sydney, Australia. A new architectural pavilion and public artwork created by artist and architect Chris Fox, illuminated by Westudio. Peeling from the ground plane up, geometries arc overhead to create an embracing volume and a point of confluence. The pavilion acts as a meeting place for the public to enjoy and space to host events for the community. Drawing inspiration from the precinct’s rail history, artist Chris Fox worked with the salient geometries of the railroad switch; the point at which a train can change its course, moving from one trajectory to another. The work is a tribute to the diverse stories and journeys of people connected with the Eveleigh Rail Yards.
The lighting vision from the beginning was to ensure the space would be as attractive and usable by night, as it is by day. Not only illuminating the structure to ensure that users feel safe and secure, but seamlessly concealing fixtures within the architectural skin to enhance its ever-twisting form and impressive scale. Illumination needed to be simple and effective with minimal fixture sizes concealed internally and externally with elegance. There are 4 layers of light to bring the space to life:
The Switches: highlighting the inspiration of the train tracks changing course, small in-ground marker lights provided a ‘spark’ of light at the ‘switch’ point locations bringing homage to the design.
The Drama Spots: a cluster of miniature, high-powered spotlights located at the peak of the pavilion to create ‘pools’ of light on the floor below.
The Inner Shell: inside the Pavilion the lighting is integrated within the ‘tracks’ to provide a delicate wash of light to highlight the inner twists and turns. Each luminaire required different aiming angles, tilts and outputs to create a deliberate drop-off of light washing down the warm timber cladding.
The Outer Shell: working in contrast, the cooler lighting to the external shells is designed to provide illumination from ground level fading off towards the peak of the pavilion. A series of spots lights positioned carefully around the structure to ‘cross-illuminate’ the skin and provide a uniform wash of light avoiding any hotspots and glare.
Getting the lighting solution from concept to completion required working closely with Chris and his team through studio reviews, creating prototypes, testing and exploring conceptual ideas, software modelling and several onsite mock-ups. The luminaires specified became an integral part of the overall design.
The management of the lighting program for the pavilion sits is within a larger ‘NEMA’ site-wide wireless system. One of few projects in Australia to utilise a NEMA lighting control system, the 4G network allowed for all of the lighting to be installed with nodes that talks directly to a master network and allows for a smart lighting control system via astronomical timeclock, enhanced safety and an increased flexibility approach.
