Wesley Place Precinct, Melbourne, Vic

The Wesley Place precinct represents an entirely new versatile public space within the City of Melbourne. The vision of Charter Hall to combine, open out and develop the space (combined with the architectural vision from COX Architecture and precinct strategy from Oculus) has created an inviting public and commercial space in an area that was previously largely unused or inaccessible.

Located at the top end of Lonsdale Street, the precinct provides open grassed areas, shady seating, cafes and restaurants closely located to adjacent commercial workspaces.

Across the different stages of the precinct development, NDYLIGHT’s role was to provide a consistent and coherent lighting strategy. In conjunction with the architect and the landscape designers, our team created a layered approach to the lighting through a strategy that focused on connection routes through the site (that link Lonsdale Street to Little Lonsdale Street) and also link the lighting to the site’s wayfinding strategy.

Throughout the central landscaped and lawned areas the lighting experience is low and discrete, boasting inground and in seating lighting to provide a calm and comfortable atmosphere for the people using them. Key to the overall site are the heritage buildings within including Wesley Church, Former Manse, Caretaker’s Cottage, the Former School House and Nicholas Hall.

To these, NDYLIGHT worked with Charter Hall, Heritage Victoria and Lendlease to develop discrete lighting solutions that provide aesthetic and functional outcomes but remain largely invisible in the context of the buildings’ form.

The last parts of the precinct include a colonnade carved from the building at 150 Lonsdale Street, extending through to 155 Little Lonsdale Street. This creates a unique pedestrian experience that feels like a column-lined path in some places and more like a tunnel in others.