Canberra Centre, Canberra, Australia

Mid-December 2006 saw the opening of a major expansion of Canberra Australia’s retail precinct with the completion of another stage of the $AU 500 million extension of the Canberra Centre by the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC). This stage, known as Section 84, brings a contemporary shopping experience to Canberra as the city's premier fashion and lifestyle shopping destination. It has attracted A-Class retailers, department stores, supermarkets and 200 unique specialty outlets. Section 84 also includes a new cinema experience for Canberra, with Dendy Cinemas establishing a multiplex and arthouse facility, with seven cinemas and two exclusive “Premium” cinemas.

Exterior lighting scheme
For QIC Real Estate's Head of Property Development, Stuart Miller, conveying a sense of the Centre’s internal vibrancy on the building exterior was a high priority. With the appointment of innovative Melbourne lighting designers Electrolight to provide the public area lighting scheme, the skyline of the façade was clearly identified as the best opportunity for attaining this key goal. Paul Beale, Electrolight’s director, set about designing a dynamic, flowing and changeable lighting scheme that would translate the Centre’s day and night time shopping, entertainment and leisure activities to its outer skin.

After working through all the issues and taking into consideration the 200 meter long façade fronting Bunda Street, and the adjoining shopping and café precinct, Electrolight's lighting designers, Paul Beale, John Ford and Jess Perry, settled on a high level, linear fluorescent solution for up-lighting the awning.

Cyclo 04 IP65 Directional
Lightmakers Australia's Melbourne representative, Karren De’Ath, worked through the four Martin Architectural Cyclo models available at the time, resulting in a scheme based on the industrial-looking Cyclo IP65. However, the solution really needed the additional output of a reflector such as that on the interior-use Cyclo 04 Directional.

Coincidentally, prototypes of a new outdoor version of the Cyclo 04 IP65 Directional were being shown for the first time at the Light + Building Exhibition in Frankfurt in March 2006. Immediately after the exhibition concluded, prototypes were rushed to Australia for final acceptance. In night time tests in Melbourne, it became clear that the 54 W Osram colored T5 tubes, incorporated into a cleverly-designed, optically-sophisticated reflector and luminaire from Martin Architectural, was the only viable solution for the project. Significantly, the Cyclo 04 IP65 Directional is the only IP65 rated luminaire for which Osram will provide their 20,000 hour and 50,000 starts warranty on their T5 54 W colored lamps. The Osram warranty in combination with the high build quality of the Martin Architectural Cyclo 04 IP65 Directional, were decisive factors in the selection of these fixtures.

Architects Cox Humphries Moss were impressed with the clean, elegant lines of the Cyclo 04 IP65 Directional, it’s finned aluminium extrusions allowing them to blend well into the metallic exterior paneling of the façade. While onsite, the builder, Construction Control, were racing to achieve the Christmas completion date, Electrolight finalized a sympathetic design that would optimize the impact of the resultant lighting scheme, while visually complementing the rapidly completing facade. The final scheme incorporated 116 of the Cyclo 04 IP65 Directional luminaires located within two meters of the exterior awning. In some places these were surface fixed, while in other locations the luminaries could be secreted on top of the glazed display window alcoves. The façade lighting is of sufficient intensity to wash off the building and across the street, creating a warm and relaxing ambience for the al fresco diners along tree-lined Bunda St.

Color satisfaction
The commissioning process was very revealing for all concerned, as colored fluorescent luminaries are not renowned for their depth of hue. Without exception, everyone involved during the programming privately expressed these reservations, only to be astounded as the faders were pushed up for the creation of the first scene. The range of colors created, the depth of color saturation and the intensity of light created are breathtaking.

Flexible, fresh looks
A cable network connects all of the nearly 500 DMX channels of the Cyclo IP65 04 Directional, and links them to a show store for scheduled replay. The control system delivers the Canberra Centre management team the ability to program new looks relevant to the Centre’s activities, retail themes and seasonal events, as well as keeping the overall presentation fresh.

Onsite programming was undertaken from a street level vantage point by Vince Haddad from Show Technology under the direction of Electrolight’s John Ford. Luminaires and cabling systems were installed by two separate electrical contractors, of whom Nexus Electrical completed the systems and commissioned the installation.

Team effort
It is becoming common practice for Australian projects to be designed by a team scattered across the wide expanses of the country, creating challenges in delivering support at appropriate stages of the project. Through Lightmakers nationwide network all elements of the project design and delivery process were easily handled, with assistance to the lighting designers delivered locally by Melbourne representative Karren DeÁth. On the ground in Canberra, local representative John Liston worked closely with the builder, Construction Control, and local electrical engineers, John Raineri and Associates, to achieve the final approvals. Project co-ordination was delivered out of Sydney by recently appointed National Sales Manager – Martin Architectural, Jonathan Ciddor. Martin technical support, luminaire delivery, DMX network distribution and control system design, were provided by Martin Professional’s Australian representative, Show Technology.

The Queensland Investment Corporation holds an Australian retail portfolio in excess of $AU2 billion and the Canberra Centre development is representative of their highly selective continuing investment. The façade lighting project for Section 84 was a courageous move by QIC and Stuart Miller, reflecting QIC’s detailed market research and deep understanding of the growing importance of the “cash rich but time poor” consumer as a major factor in retail and shopping center design.