Bespoke Lighting for Community Green Spaces by WE-EF

Green space for an emerging part of Auckland

Adjacent to the award-winning Kopupaka Park, the 'town park' at the centre of Westgate, known as Te Hauāuru, is a green heart for the emerging town centre located about 20 kilometres west of Auckland. When Auckland Council wanted to develop the 1.1-hectare area for use by the community, it engaged landscape architecture firm Isthmus. The firm provided plans that included a series of lawns, a water feature, and small amenity building.

Te Hauāuru Reserve is an integrated green space that takes its design cues from the site's location within the network of upper Waitematā inlets and streams and the history of the kauri forests that once covered the area. The walls that structure the park and frame the lawns reference the upper harbour of inlets and bays, spilling out onto a lower level promenade space along the street edge, with shellfish motif inlays, a sheltered and flexible space designed to accommodate markets.

Isthmus turned to WE-EF sales partner MHL, based in Auckland, to provide the design and equipment for lighting the park.

"The client wanted something a bit different for this park, they didn't necessarily want to use standard street lighting," said Jayden Cocker, consultant at MHL. "The initial brief was to light to P3 standard, but this was later upgraded to P2 standard, because apartments were getting built on other side of the park."

Mr Cocker said that parks are not typically illuminated in New Zealand as councils don't necessarily want to encourage people to go there at night. "But this area needed to be lit as it's a main thoroughfare," he said. On one edge of Te Hauāuru is the massive North West Shopping Centre, one of the biggest shopping precincts in Australasia. There is currently a large shopping centre, restaurants, a library, and a public space. There is a masterplan to further develop the precinct including another level on top of the existing mall, a carpark, and office buildings.

The lighting needed to provide sufficient illumination and safety for people walking from the nearby mall to their apartment or going to and from work.

"This park was put in to accommodate growth in the future, it will only get busier as time goes on and more people move to the area," Mr Cocker said. "Essentially, it's a recreational area for people to spend time in, a place for the kids to ride their bikes around. It's a really nice open space, somewhere you can sit amongst beautiful gardens and green spaces. It's a very interactive space."

WE-EF luminaires were chosen for the project due to their longevity and aesthetic appeal, as well as the landscape architects' positive experience of using the products over many years.

"Our job was to light the pathways and to uplight trees at the front," Mr Cocker said. A combination of ETC330 inground luminaires, FLC121 projectors, and DLG200 wall luminaires were used throughout the project.

"We used the FLC100 projectors to light the entire project outside, to help us get the right levels of light in the right locations," Mr Cocker said, adding that 66 x FLC121 were used in the lighting scheme. "The client didn't want the lighting to be done like a grid, they wanted light thrown in different directions, so we had to think outside the box. We wanted to create a different look and feel than typical street lighting. The FLCs have a spotlight with beam angles... we used a medium beam for this project to provide more pinpointed light in an area."

The poles were 7-metres high and the 12 W FLC121 projectors were mounted at 5.5 metres, 6 metres and 6.5 metres.

"The FLCs have the driver in the base of the pole with a flange door so they can access the drivers for easier maintenance," Mr Cocker said. "That's a big advantage with the FLC100 series because it means the product looks quite clean, you don't have bulky stuff all over it."

The ETC330 inground luminaires were used at the front of the park to illuminate the Nikau palms, a species endemic to New Zealand.

Completed: 2017.
Client: Auckland Council.
Sales Partner: MHL.
Lighting Design: WE-EF.
Landscape Architect: Isthmus.
Photography: MHL.