Client The CYP Design and Construction Joint Venture | Dates 2018-2025 |
Architect RSHP | Photographer Peter Bennetts |
Project team Mark Major, Hiroto Toyoda, Mayumi Yasuda | |
Opened to full passenger services in February 2026, the Metro Tunnel delivers a vital new transport link through the heart of the city. Five new stations – Arden, Parkville, State Library, Town Hall and Anzac – set new benchmarks for comfort, accessibility and sustainability. Appointed in 2020 to develop the lighting design for all public areas, we worked closely with the wider design and construction teams to seamlessly connect the underground environment with Melbourne’s public realm.
Integration, Experience and Sustainability
Although daylight has been incorporated wherever feasible, the stations' subterranean nature means that artificial lighting is essential to meeting operational needs while creating an engaging passenger experience at different times of day.
Character, Collaboration and Customisation
While energy-efficient LED downlights provide the primary functional lighting, we collaborated with RSHP to design a family of bespoke luminaires that read as the primary light sources and contribute to each station’s identity.
To support the passenger journey, our composition of light and dark shapes a highly legible environment. The stations fall into two typologies: the ‘Box’ stations – Arden, Parkville, and Anzac – and the ‘Trinocular’ stations, State Library and Town Hall, distinguished by their triple-vaulted forms. As part of the architecture, we integrated light to gently articulate the spaces and forms of each station, highlighting their structural rhythms and geometries. Functional illumination is enhanced by highlights on key vertical surfaces, improving clarity at transition points, aiding easy wayfinding, and creating moments of delight.
Bespoke Luminaires
Manufactured with input from local fabricators ISM, these fittings are natural extensions of the architecture, blending visual harmony with a human scale and emphasising long-term maintenance and durability. Collectively, they establish a visual language that seamlessly connects with the city’s public realm.
Drum Lights
Found on the concourses and platforms, these large circular luminaires provide soft ambient illumination. Suggestive of rooflights, their glowing surfaces create a strong visual identity, enhancing comfort and orientation.
Bracket-Mounted Lights
Used across the network, these combine spotlights and floodlights within a unified framework. Bespoke brackets allow direct, indirect or combined lighting, ensuring consistency, efficiency and ease of maintenance, including in double-height spaces.
Linear Chandeliers
Suspended within the naves of the Trinocular stations, their refined, blade-like forms were developed through extensive prototyping, exploring the interplay of light to complement the vaulted architecture.
A final layer of light highlights the Metro Tunnel’s public art programme. Working closely with artists and curators, we ensured artworks are sensitively illuminated to enhance their impact while maintaining overall visual balance.