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Gracious city living is the norm in New York and the capitals of Europe, but it’s new to Australians. More and more corners of our CBDs are now welcoming apartment dwellers, with onsite treasures from concierges to indoor swimming pools adding to the attraction of the ultimate in urban living.
Curves and colours
Recognisably a Harry Seidler design, Norths in Sydney’s Haymarket, was finished in 2004, but its distinctive curved balconies speckled with blocks of colour retain a modern look today. Seidler was an early convert to designing buildings with sustainability in mind, and a disciple of lighting designer Richard Kelly. Kelly believed in ‘ambient luminescence’: that good lighting should reveal design not compete with it, and should deliver an air of mystery with low glare from an invisible source.
Street Cred
When you’re elevating your personal world to a highrise city pad, you have certain expectations of the welcome laid out to your friends and family.
At Norths, the entrance foyer is elegantly tiled, but, with only one street frontage, depends almost entirely on artificial sources of light. The lift lobby is reached via a 3-metre wide entranceway, with one wall enhanced by a lively Picasso-esque artwork.
The North Apartments Strata Committee recently sought to elevate the arrival experience, and commissioned ERCO – renowned for its efficient and effective gallery lighting tools – to bring life back to the space.
The clever installer captured the improvement in this series of images. On the left, 4000K downlights are glare-filled and create harsh reflections in the shiny floor. In the middle, with ladder still in place, you can see the installer has partially completed the job: the first four ERCO wallwashers contrast favourably with the remaining two downlights.
And then the job is done; six low glare wallwashers make use of the existing cutouts and can be supported by the existing wiring, but the result is a completely different effect. Warm 3000K light retains the required brightness thanks to reflection off the white-painted wall, and the true grandeur of the artwork is restored. There is no distracting brightness in people’s eyes and the light source is barely evident. Correctly placed, the wallwashers evenly span the wall without scalloping, and a small quantity of light reaches the floor to define the space.
Total Control
With a nod to both aesthetics and operating costs, a new Casambi system was installed along with the luminaires. Programmed via an App, the light output runs at full strength 5am-6pm, reduces 20% for the evening peak then another 15% through to midnight, and to minimum levels for the depths of night. Reflecting the Circadian cycle, this controlled approach sits comfortably with people in the space, and also saves energy and cost for the Strata members.
Sometimes a simple upgrade of the light is all it takes to return a good design to an excellent human experience.
ERCO Channel Partner for New South Wales, Jadecross is one of the leading architectural lighting suppliers in the region.
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Channel Partner: Jadecross
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