On Friday I had the pleasure of attending the opening of the Bendigo Chinese Precinct.  And, despite the cold, it was quite an event with amazing dancers, costumes and of course fire-crackers galore.

This project has been very collaborative - we have worked very closely with landscape architect Rush Wright Associates, council and other consultants to produce a lighting scheme which, we hope, does  justice to the project.  Of course, this never happens in isolation and we acknowledge the contribution of others who helped us to realise our scheme.

On the day there must have been 200 people braving the weather to celebrate the opening.  And I have to say it was looking fantastic.

This the latest in a series of projects Electrolight has undertaken in Bendigo.  Previously, we did the lighting design to Hargraves Mall, Capital Theatre facade and cafe and Bendigo Town Hall council chamber for which we designed a custom chandelier.  The common thread running through these projects is one of our most loyal clients Mr Don Goldsworthy from the City of Greater Bendigo whose support is very much appreciated.

For reasons beyond me, there often seems to be an inordinate amount of time between dreaming up a lighting scheme and seeing it installed.  Case in point is Duck Duck Goose a new restaurant in the QV Centre in Melbourne.  It must be three years since we did the design for this project and I must admit that I thought for a while that the design was going to end up on the drawing board in the sky.  But lo and behold, the jobs complete, looking great and trading well.

We had a well deserved team lunch there last week to celebrate!

It is always really exciting to get new photos of our work.

Our involvement in projects often spans several years - a case in point is the West Gate Freeway which we started working on back in May 2007, 3 years ago now.  Our involvement was to design the lighting from the mouth of the Burnley Tunnel through to the start of the West Gate Bridge (about 8km in total).  Aside from the road lighting itself, we designed the lighting to the urban design features by Denton Corker Marshall; namely the portals and wedges that you may have seen or even driven through.

Last week we sent Peter Bennetts to site with his camera and, as usual, he has created some magical images.  I must admit I was a little concerned when he told me he was balanced on top of a step ladder on the corner of the Montague Street intersection to get one of the shots.  That’s commitment for you.

West Gate Freeway Portal

It is with great pride that I announce that the MTC Theatre and Robina Shopping Centre light sculpture have been awarded the IES International Lighting Design Award.

While I get to collect the awards, the awards really go to the whole Electrolight team.  We are all about collaboration here and I believe that our work is strong because we have such a diverse range of talented people feeding into the design process.

And you know what, while it’s always a surprise and privilege to receive these awards, this is for work that we  conceived several years ago now.  Wait till you see the new stuff we have that hasn’t been installed yet.  I’m talking the new Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, Lonsdale Street Dandenong, Westfield Sydney City, Perth Theatre etc. etc.

MTC Theatre

Robina Shopping Centre Light Sculpture

Every once in a while you get a project that you just love, and its not always the ones you’d expect.

It has been a couple of years at least since we were invited to put in a proposal for the refurbishment of Lonsdale Street, the main street in Dandenong.

Dandenong is best part of an hour from central Melbourne and has a rich social and cultural history; it was once a major centre for heavy industry in Australia and attracted migrants from all around the world to make Dandenong home.  But like many such places that type of work has vanished, leaving in its place some social problems.  Things are changing now; the heavy industry is being replaced by more technological work and the place is very much on the up again. And you can say what you like about Dandenong; there is no denying its character and soul.

Anyway, we were fortunate enough to get the gig and to work alongside some of our favourite collaborators in the industry.  The client is VicUrban who are pumping an astonishing $200m ++ into the project, making this the most significant urban renewal project in Victoria outside of Docklands.  The lead designer is a partnership between TCL and BKK; practices who both truly believe in collaboration and are genuinely interested in contributions to the design process from outside .  Then we had our artist introduced to the project, the wonderful David Sequeira who seemed to understand in an instant what this project was about and was driven not to create a monument to himself but to have his creativity feed into the design of the less glamourous things such as tree selections, paver types and, thankfully, the lighting scheme.

One afternoon at TCL’s offices there was a workshop between TCL, BKK, David Sequiera, Rachel Burke and me.  Over the course of that session we collectively dreamt up the feature lighting scheme which consist of over 100 LED light sticks which will be installed at 6m intervals along the central median of the road.  Each of the sticks will be programmed to be set at a unique colour - representing the cultural diversity of Dandenong itself.

And the really exciting this is that when Rachel went to site last week the first dozen or so were installed - see below.