Sea Change, North Vancouver Recreation and Culture

Project Details

The design of the Sea Change in Lonsdale Quay, North Vancouver, BC mimics the ephemeral feeling of being immersed within a body of water, as if light was penetrating an undersea world through water ripples above the tunnel.  This watery effect is created using a series of LED lights and mirrored panels that refract light patterns onto the surfaces of the tunnel.  When the tunnel is unoccupied the artwork will cast a gentle rippling light effect, but when a pedestrian or cyclist enters along the Spirit Trail, they will trigger a wave of blue/green light cascading along the wall in front of them.

Exterior color changing luminaires with a multi-diode array were used to create additional texture. Occupancy sensors trigger individual ripples of colors across the wall for pedestrians and cyclists, while scenes sit in a lower energy ‘resting state’ during less active times. Lumenpulse provided custom fixtures for us fitted with only green and blue chips and ETC helped me build custom fixture profiles so the software would understand that it had a four channel fixture that was only green and blue emitters.