Light Line Social Square - Norwest
2019
Light Line Social Square - Norwest
Light Line Social Square is the line-wide artwork for the 8 Metro North West stations from Cherrybook to Tallawong. The artwork is embedded in the design of each station. It is made up of artful landscapes, sculptural furniture, coloured glazing in skylights, facades, lifts, stairs and escalators, train activated platform lighting, glazed tiled walls, playful paving and cooling mist installations. The artwork draws upon the recent agricultural history of the region. The geometry of the orchard groves, and the colours of their fresh produce, are translated into the grid of the station landscapes, and the signature colour at each station. In this way, Light Line Social Square references the past and connects it to the present and the future. The artwork orchestrates an interplay of colour and light, expressed over time. It is immersive and dynamic - continuously changing throughout the day, according to the light and weather conditions, and over the seasons, across the year.
Norwest is the third of the three consecutive underground stations on the Sydney Metro North West line coming from the city, characterised by the ‘great rooms’ of the underground concourse halls, and the kaleidoscopic Skylight Lanterns (see Castle Hill). The station’s signature orange is given multi-layered expression in the transparent coloured glass and cast light of the Skylight Lanterns and the Colourways lifts and escalators, the Light Line programmed lighting installation, the Social Sphere sculptural furniture arranged within the station’s terraced plaza, and the seasonal orange autumn leaves of the Chinese pistachio (Pistacia chinensis) trees and winter-through-summer flowering, pale orange, Grevillea juniperina ‘Molonglo’.
- location
- Metro North West stations: Norwest
- material
- Transparent coloured glass, cast aluminium, concrete, paving, LED light, trees and flowering plants
- size
- Station and public plaza
- client
- Hassell on behalf of CPB John Holland as part of Northwest Rapid Transit
- awards
Lloyd Rees Award for Urban Design, NSW Architecture Awards 2020
Commendation for Public Architecture, NSW Architecture Awards 2020
- collaborators
Peter McGregor (McGregor Westlake Architecture) and Hassell
- team
Artists: Michaelie Crawford, Turpin Crawford Studio and Peter McGregor, McGregor Westlake Architecture in collaboration with Ross de la Motte and the Hassell design team. Turpin Crawford Studio team: Jennifer Turpin, Anna Ewald-Rice, Rupert Trengrove; McGregor Westlake team: Wes Grunsell, Tina Chow, Isabella Spiedel, Alex Rink; Deuce Design: Bruce Slorach, Ingrid van der Meulen; Event Engineering: Jeremy sparks, Konrad Hartmann; Fiona Robbe Landscape Architects; Waterforms International; Dirk Slotboom, Michael Sallis
- photo and video credits
Brett Boardman Photography; Ian Hobbs Media ; Rusty Goat Media; Mark Syke Photography