LED wall lights up lobby

Mirvac and more than students from Swinburne University are creating digital artwork for display on an eight metre LED wall in the lobby of Melbourne’s new tower at 664 Collins Street.

The students are creating concepts for the artwork as part of their studies in digital media and design.

“Public art plays an integral role in creating engaging spaces with a unique sense of place,” says Mirvac’s development manager Scott Jarzynka.

“The large public-facing lobby at 664 Collins Street offered the perfect opportunity to support up-and-coming artists by featuring their work in a prominent public space.

“The artwork will be seen by tenants as well as the steady stream of commuters walking from Docklands to Southern Cross Station.”

By using a LED screen, Mirvac can present a wide variety of work, “rather than static installations”, Jarzynka adds.

One example is the work of third year student, Kalipoi Georgiou, who has designed a piece to show wind passing through the Melbourne CBD using the effect of Fluid Mapping, an exercise that tracks how wind passes through buildings.

According to Dean of Swinburne University School of Design, Professor Jane Bury, the project “means that students experience first-hand collaboration with a professional team”.

Mirvac and Grimshaw Architects has been on hand to provide feedback and support to the students during the project, with the students able to test their artworks on the screens in early 2018.

The large LED modular media wall will feature 255 screens weaving together six-million plus pixels to provide an overall dimension of 8.5 x 7.5 metres.

Bury says the project “provides the excitement of designing for the real world for an exacting commercial partner and bringing ideas, nurtured through that partnership, to life”.

In June this year Mirvac sold per cent of the building to Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing.

The artwork will be officially revealed when the building opens in June 2018.