Sky Garden

Sky Garden — Grand Millennium Auckland

Large-scale lighting sculpture by James Russ Studio

Sky Garden is a large-scale lighting sculpture created by James Russ Studio for the Grand Ballroom at the Grand Millennium Auckland.

Spanning the ballroom ceiling and made from more than one million individually hand-assembled LED lights, Sky Garden was created as part of the hotel’s major refurbishment, working alongside Auckland interior designers Material Creative.

Inspired by wisteria in spring, the sculpture creates a suspended canopy of light across the ballroom. Thousands of illuminated elements catch and reflect light throughout the space, giving the installation a sense of movement and delicacy despite its considerable scale.

One million points of light

Sky Garden was an ambitious project for the James Russ Studio.

Producing more than a million individual points of light required us to triple the size of our studio team and bring in local artisans and makers to help with the painstaking process of assembly.

Much of the work was done by hand. The challenge was to retain the delicacy and apparent randomness of wisteria while creating a lighting system capable of working reliably across one of Auckland’s largest ballrooms.

The result brings together handcraft, sculpture and contemporary LED technology on an architectural scale.

Creating a unique atmosphere

Sky Garden was designed to do more than illuminate the ballroom. The intention was to change the feeling of the space.

The lighting can be controlled across different dimmable settings, allowing the installation to move from a subtle background shimmer to a much more immersive experience.

James has described standing beneath the finished work as a little like “floating in a glass of champagne” — points of light dancing and reflecting throughout the room while the sculpture appears to hover overhead.

The Grand Millennium Auckland Grand Ballroom is an 830m² event space accommodating up to 1,000 guests. Sky Garden now forms the centrepiece of the ballroom and its extensive refurbishment.

The interiors were developed by Auckland design studio Material Creative, with Sky Garden conceived and handcrafted by James Russ Studio in New Zealand.

Sky Garden demonstrates what can happen when sculptural lighting is considered as part of the architecture itself — bringing together art, craft, technology and light to completely change the experience of a space.

Project Details

Artwork: Sky Garden
Location: Grand Millennium Auckland, New Zealand
Artist & lighting design: James Russ Studio
Interior design: Material Creative
Light source: More than one million hand-assembled LEDs
Lighting: Integrated dimmable LED system
Inspiration: Wisteria in spring
Application: Large-scale sculptural and architectural lighting
Made: New Zealand by James Russ Studio

Grand Millennium Auckland:https://www.millenniumhotels.com/en/meetings%20events/new%20zealand/auckland/grand-millennium-auckland/

Material Creative: https://materialcreative.co.nz/

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