The Australia Pavilion theme “Chasing the Sun” explores Australia’s unique energy, diverse and warm people, talent and creativity, and stunning natural environment.
Designed by the Australian architecture design firm Buchan, the pavilion is inspired by the flowering blossoms of the iconic Australian eucalyptus tree. The tree’s many shapes and colours represent the diversity and dynamism of Australian people, and the eucalyptus blossom reflects the vibrancy of our modern Australian society.
Inside the Australia Pavilion, visitors embark on a one-of-a-kind immersive adventure following the sun across Australia. This multisensory experience allows visitors to hear the sounds of our unique fauna, gaze into the night sky, and celebrate our ocean environment while also helping visitors understand First Nations’ connection to the country over tens of thousands of years and how this ancient knowledge can help us build a future society.
Eamon Darcy, the creative and project director, interpreted the chasing the sun component. He came up with the concept of walking through an eucalypt forest, and following that from sunrise to late in the day. The fake gum trees and plants are incredibly realistic, with mirrors behind them to achieve an infinity effect of the trees repeating forever. Clever up and top lighting and diffused soft light help create the endless impact.
The second part of the sensory experience is the Australian night sky viewed from the desert. It is based around some First Nations constellation stories and features a projection screen embedded in the ceiling. As you head to the end of the experience, you enter dawn breaking before going into a large room filled with many LED screens of different sizes, angles and shapes that surround you. Australia’s oceans and waterways finish the Land, Sky and Sea theme here.
Upon exiting the primary structure, you enter the main outdoor forecourt area with a large stage for performances. There is also a retail area with classic Aussie food and merchandise.
The Lighting Concept
Ziggy Ziegler and Toby Sewell are the pavilion’s lighting designers, and they had free rein with creativity and product specification. Not only did they have to produce some stunning work for the abovementioned areas, but they also provided lighting for all the back-of-house areas: VIP function rooms, lounges, meeting areas, and bar areas.
“It turned from a little theatrical project for the stage into Toby and me designing everything from the front lot line to the back of the pavilions!” said Ziggy. “It was great to have a co-designer for something of that scale, and on a working scale, not just the size of it, the political scale of it, to something that involves so many government departments, contractors, suppliers, sub-suppliers, relationships internationally with other companies, and sites with the Japanese government.”
Toby and Ziggy’s lighting design resulted from two years of solid work. The lighting fixtures were all purchased from Australia by ES Global on behalf of the Australian Government and shipped to Osaka. The control consoles are from Access All Areas Japan.
Japan has strict technical restrictions and specific certifications for electrical equipment. If it does not have that approval, it doesn’t matter how good it is; it can’t come into the country.
“There was a lot of equipment we regularly use that you couldn’t use in Japan,” explained Ziggy. “So we had to get things that would work there that fit the budget. Everything we rigged, installed and designed had to be earthquake-proof, typhoon-proof and fireproof. All the cabling had to be changed on all the equipment to suit Japanese standards.”
The lighting installation took place over four months, including a couple of weeks of programming by the talented Jason Fripp. Simple Motion handled rigging/lighting systems, installation management, and programming.
Prolights Equipment
Ziggy and Toby specified a Prolights-heavy rig consisting of:
20 x Prolights Mosaico L
10 x Prolights Mosaico
6 x Prolights Astra Wash19Pix
111 x Prolights StudioCob PlusFC
44 x Prolights EclDisplay Wash Track Lights
5 x Prolights EclProfile IP 19 deg
2 x Prolights EclProfile IP 50 deg
8 x Prolights EclProfile FW VW
The Prolights StudioCob PlusFC was present in almost every space due to its flexibility and neat appearance, as sometimes they were exposed to the public.
“The StudioCob is reliable and has excellent colour, the colour mix feels good,” commented Ziggy. “On the main stage, they were buried into the stage to act as footlights. They were powerful enough to light the performers in front of LED screens to be seen. We also had some of those on top of the retail outlets.”
StudioCobs, buried amongst the foliage in the gum tree forest, cast a very even, soft light up the trunks of the gum trees. Ziggy commented that they achieved some beautiful colours, such as very light tints rather than saturated colours. More StudioCobs, positioned above the trees in the canopy, from where they could shoot light down to create shadows from the leaves.
StudioCobs, hidden amongst the LED screens in the area dedicated to the sea, create various effects. For example, if you suddenly went under the ocean, just for a moment, they’d saturate the room in deep blue for a brief moment before fading out.
“We used them in the VIP function area at the back of the house,” added Ziggy. “It was a long corridor with a large amount of copper coloured chain hanging as a wall decoration. We popped StudioCobs behind the chain on the floor, shooting up through the chain in a beautiful amber gold. They not only made the chain stand out, they cast shadows up and through from all the chains and then bounced that shadowed light back down the corridor. So instead of overhead lighting, we have this bounced light from the chain lighting running through the corridor.”
StudioCobs acted as room lights to colour wash tables, and some as extra stage lighting for the main stage.
The fixed beam Prolights eclProfiles created breakup gobos and notable highlights within the gum forest.
The eight eclProfile FW VW, the fixed white and variable white, 50-degree units, are used on sculptures in the VIP function areas. The two-tone white created blue and amberish shadows behind each sculpture.
“You have the two whites coming from each Profile focused on each object, and then you get the multicoloured shadows,” explained Ziggy. “So one shadow would be just a normal shadow, a dark grey colour, left to right of that as a 3d object, you’d get the blue or the red white shadow. So you end up with three coloured shadows and a bit of two-tone lighting of the object, giving it much more depth. They were kind of fun to use. And again, no heat out of them, very lightweight. They were the right choice for a long expo because they have no globe to change, as they’re an LED profile. We put them up, focus them and leave them.
The Prolights eclDisplay Wash Track Lights on an architectural track running through the corridors, foyers, and transition lobbies made focusing choices easy. Ziggy adds that they delivered much nicer quality light than regular track lights and that they could focus them theatrically.
As IP-rated, the Prolights Astra Wash19Pix provided the front wash on the main stage. With limited rigging capacity, Ziggy appreciated the Astra Wash19Pix’s compact build and lightweight.
“They are very neat, and bright enough to compete with the LED wall,” he remarked. “When we designed the stage, we had no idea what the performances would be. We needed a flexible fixture that can zoom well and move around, and they did that beautifully.”
In the gum tree forest, Ziggy and Toby required a fixture to do a beautiful gobo wash across the main pathway in the forest, which would create light beams where you go to watch through the trees, like rays of sunlight. The fixture was not required to move, as a fixed beam was needed. The fixture also needed to be IP-rated as the room features water mist.
“So, we needed to find something IP-rated that did what a mover did but with no yoke,” said Ziggy. “We looked around and found the Prolights Mosaico, which has the correct brightness, is IP-rated and pretty much does everything the other movers did. And whilst they didn’t have colour mixing in this particular picture, the colour wheel had appropriate colours for what we wanted. Which was mainly a warm white. We could use the framing shutters, the zoom and the gobos and create gobo effects by layering gobos, taking out focus and getting this beautiful dappled light across the walkway. It looks like the movement you get with real trees.”
ShowPRO Equipment
80 x ShowPRO Fusion Wash Q XLVIII (48)
8 x ShowPRO Neptune 300 Wash IP65
The ShowPRO Fusion Washes are in many places, with the majority (60) lighting the entrance canopy from within. The façade of the pavilion represents a gum nut, an unusual shape to light designed without allocation for any cabling, lighting or rigging. It was all retrofit.
The major colour scheme is a pink and amber sunset, occasionally dispersed with some green and gold.
“The Fusion Washes are IP-rated and solid work horses,” added Ziggy. “They work from the earthquake and typhoon-proofing point of view. They’re robust, and the light output is impressive. We had to turn them down!”
More Fusion Washes are located in the gum tree forest, hidden above the trees, behind all the foliage. Some provide sunlight coming down through the trees, creating shadows. The others were at the edge of the trees in the corners of the pavilion, delivering a deep blue to create a sky effect and realistic background for the ‘sunlight’.
The ShowPRO Neptune 300 Wash IP65 provides general seating and table wash lighting in a large functional meeting room.
Control
The pre-programming was done on MA Lighting grandMA3 consoles at Resolution X’s programming suite in Melbourne. The remaining programming was done in Japan with Access All Areas’ MA3s. Control runs as a theme park system from a Q-SYS control system with a DMX playback device.
Lighting Designers: Ziggy Ziegler and Toby Sewell
Lighting Equipment Acquisition and Supply: Simple Motion and ES Global
Rigging/Lighting Systems, lighting install management and programming: Simple Motion (Greg Gowans, Kenji Oates, Paul Mulchay, Will Hunter, Jason Fripp, Leanne Lloyd, Joy Yeoh, Sam Kry.
Creative Project Director: Eamon Darcy
Creative Vision Director: Tracey Taylor
Production Manager: Tony Papp
Technology Manager: Paul Van Der Ent.
Lighting Engineering and Solutions: ES Global MEP – Nick Newey
Safety Lighting and Systems: Alastair Ewer, Nick Newey
