Australian Museum, Sydney NSW

The building

The Australian Museum is Australia's first museum, and the fifth oldest natural history museum in the world. With its recent extensive renovation, the heritage-listed Australian Museum may now sit among the best natural history museums in the world.

The award-winning 'Project Discover,' was driven by the design thinking of COX Architecture with Neeson Murcutt + Neille. It expanded the museum’s role as a world-class educational and cultural facility by providing an upgraded civic space where people can now interact, discover and explore.

Transforming an Australian icon

Enhancing the architecture, and the historical and cultural heritage of the area, was crucial for the museum. To help make this possible, we were selected as part of the museum’s redevelopment lighting solution. Lighting design was facilitated by ARUP, while ERGO Group took care of the lighting, electrical and communication installations - bringing new breathtaking experiences to guests at an unparalleled level. We collaborated with both teams to develop a customised solution that catered to the individual requirements of the museum.

Guided by the designer's concept development, we considered ease of movement and wayfinding while creating the lighting solution for this project. We wanted to design a solution that encouraged the public to engage with William Street as its main focus and reveal the natural beauty of the building’s historic sandstone construction.

Flexible lighting solutions

The museum hosts a range of exhibitions, so we needed to ensure the appropriate light fittings were used throughout its spaces. Our flexible and customisable product range was versatile enough that we could achieve the right lighting solution. We considered a variety of colours, temperatures, beam distributions and accessories to ensure the lighting was flexible for a diverse range of exhibitions and events.

Optics were extremely important for this project. As well as making the best use of natural light, we worked on creating scenes, highlighting points of interest, shaping and framing artworks and making sure everything was compatible with the control system. This all required careful consideration to ensure we had the flexibility to suit the needs of particular exhibitions.

Enhancing the features of the building

The stunning Escher-influenced staircase is a highlight for Project Discover, providing an up-close look at the craftsmanship of the historic sandstone work. We used our XF24120 strip lights as a wall washer to highlight these intricate details, while offering a warm contrast to the staircase’s natural light and white surfaces.

Corridors leading from the staircase were lit with our LST5 providing evenly lit floor surfaces while the wood panelled wall details were accentuated by cove lighting using our Flexiled series. This use of lighting creates a sense of ambience that continues as natural light cascades through Hintze Hall – the museum’s central civic space. The public accessways to the Wild Planet Exhibition are illuminated by our XDRL10 in 4000K colour temperature, giving them a warm and inviting, appearance.

Visitors entering the museum through the Groups Entrance will see a spectacular wall wash lighting effect along the lower ground sandstone corridors, courtesy of our LST collection. LST is equipped with deep-set light optics, designed for glare control. This collection creates mood and ambience by hiding its light source within the field of view. The luminaires were carefully placed between the concrete ceiling slats, highlighting the textured surfaces.

The Australian Museum's gift shop is illuminated by our XTB15 - an ideal lighting solution for the museum’s retail environments thanks to its versatility and control.