Pitt Street Mall Catenary Lighting System

The City of Sydney turned to Ronstan to upgrade Pitt Street Mall's lighting to an energy-efficient catenary system as part of the overall redevelopment at the precinct. The result is a ladder-like series of lights supported by a Ronstan high-tension stainless steel cable framework.

The system illuminates the pedestrian areas below and the facades of the buildings, without needing large self-standing poles or heavy-looking supports. The 16m high tensile cable web is almost invisible, with bowstring support cables anchored every 20 meters into the facades of the buildings along the mall.

The catenary lights themselves comprise long tubes, combining downward illumination and a sequence of LEDs along the vertical length, which can be programmed for different colors depending on seasonal requirements – reflecting specific moods and occasions.

LSAA 2011 Design Award Entry (Cat 2, 2019)

APPLICATION OF PROJECT:  Separation Enclosure for Chimpanzees.

The Taronga Zoos’ chimpanzee troop is one of the largest captive groups in the world with recognized wild behavior patterns and a sophisticated social hierarchy.  With its population including four maturing sub-adult males jockeying and promoting themselves within the group, the zoo cited a need for the construction of a fully enclosed and semi-transparent separation paddock within the chimpanzee exhibit to allow the chimpanzees to be easily divided as needed, without moving them to an entirely new location, and thus avoiding potential commotion.

Other Structural Forms - Cablenets, Glazing, Facades, Spaceframes

The LSAA has groups of members interested in cablenets, high technology glazing and facades.

In fact one main reason for the creation of the LSAA  from the MSAA was to cater for the growing number of projects which involved large glazed areas being supported by pretensioned cable truss systems or cablenets.

In modern times, when the overall energy usage for the life of a building is taken into account, the use of high technology facades will become more important. There is also a growing use of "green facades" or vertical gardens.

The traditional spaceframe structures are becoming rarer - those with many small elements that are man-handled and connected together on site. Labour costs and erection times are now outweighed by fewer larger assemblies that can be installed quickly by cranes.

The LSAA would welcome articles and links to projects in this category. 

Entered in the LSAA 2009 Design Awards (1099)

Entrant: Aurecon - Adelaide - Designer / Consultant
Location: Adelaide Botanical Gardens - North Terrace Adelaide SA

A new glasshouse was required to replace the dilapidated Victoria House, in a very sensitive location in the centre of Adelaide’s Botanic Gardens. The heritage-listed 1867 Lily Pond in the Victoria House had to be preserved and the design was not to detract from the adjacent heritage-listed buildings.  Glass was chosen as the main structural material as the designers wanted a solution that would not detract from the surrounding heritage buildings, but that would still provide a modern, minimalist and elegant centrepiece for the Gardens’ future.

Entered into the LSAA 2007 Design Awards (3837) Project Category Cablenets

Entrant: UFS Australasia Pty Ltd

Client: Sydney Attractions Group
Architect: Misho & Associates/ RIHS Architects – Misho & Gerry Rihs
Structural Engineer: Fabric: Wade Consulting - Joseph Dean, 
Steel: S2 Corporation Murray Allen    Fabricator(s): Fabric Shelter Systems Graham Griffin

Application and Function:

Located on the eastern side of Darling Harbour the recently opened Sydney Wildlife World adds an iconic landmark to the Darling Harbour foreshore. The urban zoo is an extension to the facilities at the Sydney Aquarium. The wildlife park has been created to accommodate Australian wildlife in as natural an environment as possible to give short stay Sydney visitors exposure to the unique Australian fauna and floor.

Application: Zoo Enclosure for Sumatran Tigers.

This project was entered in the LSAA 2018 Design Awards (Cablenets, 4100)

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

The Sumatran Tiger Enclosure at Taronga Zoo consists of three separate enclosures.

Enclosure 1 and 3 are free form tensile roof canopies constructed from X-Tend Mesh. X-Tend Mesh effectively acts as a tensioned cable net structure.

The mesh is tied to catenary cable boundaries connected to masts with tieback cables and is pushed / pulled up with 4 flying masts in each enclosure. The flying masts are supported on a structural cable net that is attached to a large central mast and tied back to the perimeter masts structures.