FLINDERS STREET STATION

Flinders Street Station in Melbourne, Australia, is the busiest railway station in Australia and sees over 90,000 passengers pass through its imposing entrance every day. As one of the city’s most recognisable landmarks, the much-admired building has a striking daytime presence because of its Edwardian Baroque architectural style featuring a prominent dome, arched entrance, tower and clocks. But by night the building’s appearance was diluted and unsightly light spillover from taller adjacent buildings muddled its facade.

City officials decided to resolve these issues by highlighting the building’s classical architecture with an attractive system of LED lights. Night-time renderings of the proposed lighting convinced all parties that an LED lighting system would be the best replacement for the building’s sodium fittings. As the building is protected by the Victorian Heritage Register, designers took considerable care when installing new mounting brackets and concealed cabling for the lighting system. Lighting fixtures were chosen for their energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness, and the ability for public engagement with the structure. The facade lighting can respond to the many social and cultural events held in the city (Australia Day, St Patricks Day, Red Nose Day, Breast Cancer Awareness, New Years etc).

Darkon provided key aspects of the LED lighting project, including services such as design consultation and coordination of key suppliers for compliance, installation, programming and commissioning. The new lighting system features luminaires manufactured exclusively by Lumascape and bolsters the building’s aesthetic value and is also significantly more energy-efficient than its previous system. The highly focused light distribution also ensures minimal light spillover.

The result is fantastic and the entire project has been completely seamless, from the supply and installation of the light fittings to the ultimate performance of the lights.

Credit is due to the entire project team for this outstanding outcome for the people of Victoria.