Sun Light
Client The Salvation Army
Year 2026
Type Public artwork
Scope Concept Design, Documentation, Construction
Team Peter McGregor and Li Zexun
The artwork, a cylinder of Sun Light is intended to work as a kind of beacon of homecoming and hope. It is seen inside and outside, daytime and nighttime, like the perennial Porch Light left on for those coming home, a visual representation of life, welcome and warmth.
For the future residents of William Booth House, we hope the light becomes an enduring symbol of their new home as their place for rebuilding a life of renewal.
Lighting inside the artwork will ensure that it is visible both inside and outside, during day and night. We aim to calibrate the light to the time of day, thereby giving the work a temporal quality that may wax and wane.
The geometry of the concentric rings, linked by subtle radial bars, combined with the colour palette of yellows from pale lemon to golden, with oranges and greens to either side, is intended to create a rich image of wholeness and harmony.
The form of the work is intended to work with the depth of the wall, and like all the existing windows, is set back with a deep angled reveal and sill, giving the work – and the building as a whole – a sculptural quality.
Materials are selected for their enduring integral qualities – cast glass and stainless steel. There are no visible applied finishes. Access to the lighting will be via the removal of the internal ring set. This detail will be detailed in the shop drawing process.
The awning’s shared colour, geometry and materials will amplify the work, connecting it more explicitly to the experience of entry and homecoming.
At night, a light above the awning can cast the colour of the glass onto the pavement below and over the passerby, so they too are touched by a passing entry experience.
