Catenary Projects

The studio505 directors were previously involved in the design of the catenary external lighting system for Federation Square. Knowing this, the City of Melbourne approached studio505 to design and detail similar structures for the public plaza at Queensbridge Square, Bourke Street Mall and Cohen Place in China Town.

At Queensbridge Square the catenary is a series of suspended cable pairs slung across the open space from perimeter poles and building mounts. The lights are hung from the cables at predetermined locations to create a continous and even spread of illumination, without the interruption of poles within the public concourse space. The catenary system was 3D modelled by studio505 and the team worked closely with the project engineers VDM Consulting and the contractors to ensure the system was installed and erected correctly.

Following on from Queensbridge Square, studio505 designed a simple catenary network of lights designed to light up Bourke Street mall in the city of Melbourne.

The catenary lighting design in Cohen Place, China Town responded to the much smaller space of the square by proposing a floating central ring, that acts as a giant public chandelier. The sculpture has some peripheral lights suspended from the supporting cables to illuminate the walled city square, and the central ring has been fitted with traditional Chinese lanterns.