Randwick Health and Innovation Precinct (RHIP), in Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), is a 24-hour ecosystem of doctors, emergency and nurse wards, students, patients, visitors, porters and caterers operating 365 days a year. A large proportion of these people are women, and according to the latest statistics, 42 per cent of women in NSW feel unsafe in public spaces at night.1
To enable women, girls and gender diverse people to feel safe and included in the Precinct at night, we are working closely with RHIP to design a creative lighting masterplan drawing on our expertise in lighting, codesign and gender sensitive design. Our work is helping the Precinct shape their priorities for lighting artwork commissions, design briefs, laneway transformations and informing redevelopment.
This project is funded by Transport for NSW’s Safer Cities Program, a $30 million initiative to help improve perceptions of safety in the state’s cities and towns, particularly for women, girls and gender diverse people.
Codesign ‘walkshop’ captures perceptions of safety
A foundation of the Safer Cities program is codesign, including ‘walking workshops' or 'walkshops’, with community and stakeholders. Our multidisciplinary team of security consultants, transport planners and lighting designers led a walkshop during daytime and night-time with the Precinct’s staff and community members to understand how we can design more inclusive and safe spaces.
As we walked around different spaces in the Precinct, we asked participants a series of questions about how they felt in each space to understand their perceptions of safety. Each participant recorded their responses in a booklet we collected at the end of the walkshop.
Through this process, we identified six overarching challenges: wayfinding, ambiguous and uninviting spaces, lack of community access and poor pedestrian experience, vulnerability and inconsistent lighting.
Our participants told us:
“The footpath is only wide enough for a single person to walk – it is uncomfortable to walk side by side or overtake.”
“Coming out and being involved in the process to highlight what I found scary was confronting, but it was also comforting to know there are solutions to help me feel safer at night.”
“The atmosphere could be made more fun by painting the walls colourful or putting fairy lights in the trees.”
We held a ‘walkshop’ as part of our project with RHIP to design a creative lighting masterplan to improve perceptions of safety.
Designing a creative lighting masterplan
Using the findings from the walkshop, together with RHIP. Arup created five principles to design a creative lighting masterplan for the precinct with actions:
Lighting for night-time wayfinding: accentuate the environment as it changes throughout the seasons and imbue wayfinding elements with cultural significance to create meaningful landmarks for the local community.
Increase quality of open spaces: illuminate vertical elements such as walls, emphasise the entrance and exit points and create a warm atmosphere by warm white accent lights such as fairy lights.
Clarity of public spaces: consistent colour temperature for furniture, low-level lighting, and lighting incorporated into landscaping elements.
Pedestrian experience: activating open spaces, low-level lighting, and paintings on the ground to help slow down the traffic.
The masterplan will inform a holistic, site-specific approach to improve placemaking, wayfinding, activation, and perceptions of safety for users of the precinct. Our work is helping RHIP shape their priorities for lighting artwork commissions, design briefs, laneway transformations and redevelopment.
Rebecca and Alice from Arup have been inspiring collaborators, and their work has brought enormous expertise to our conversation with developers, stakeholders and the local workforce. Their strategy will synthesise the diverse voices of our precinct and support us to create a better, more connected, safe and inclusive place.
Sophie Forbat
Head of Arts and Placemaking, Randwick Health and Innovation Precinct
What we delivered
We are working closely with Randwick Health and Innovation Precinct (RHIP) to design a creative lighting masterplan
Our work is helping RHIP shape its priorities for lighting artwork commissions, design briefs, laneway transformations and informing redevelopment
This project helps improve perceptions of safety in the state’s cities and towns, particularly for women, girls and gender diverse people
If you'd like to speak to one of our lighting design consultants about any of the issues raised on this page or a potential collaboration then please get in touch by completing the form.