Vivid Sydney 2017
For the past two years, Northrop has worked with Beam Collective, a creative group of designers, engineers and lighting specialists brought together to devise inspiring installations for Sydney’s VIVID Light Festival. This year, our team provided pro-bono structural engineering services for ‘Under my Umbrella’, an illuminated series of umbrellas suspended in a laneway in the Rocks.
The design of the installation needed to avoid physical connections with adjacent buildings, one of which was heritage listed. We instead opted for a tensioned scaffolding grid system that used friction to keep the lighting feature safely suspended.
Northrop worked closely with the design team and builder throughout the project. We were able to optimise the framing grid and ensure there was an appropriate level of robustness for each installation.
The result was easy to build and looked great, attracting vast numbers of visitors throughout the festival’s duration.
‘Under my Umbrella’ recently took home the NSW Light Sculpture and Installation Award of Excellence at the IES Awards night.