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It was a night to remember for Davco Electrical Services at the 2024 Master Electricians Excellence Awards in Auckland on October 25.
The Warkworth company picked up the prestigious Lighting Design Award for its Dynamic Light and Sound Art Installation, called Te Hokinga Mahara (Collection of Memories), which was set up along 180m of native bush on the Mahurangi riverbank, opposite the wharf.
Davco Electrical director David Morrison, who led the project after winning the contract from Auckland Council, says it was amazing to win the award.
“To win it up against massive companies with lots of resources means a lot. And to deliver a project like this and the feedback we got from everyone at the awards night was just mind-blowing,” he says.
The installation required 2700m of cable, 1160m of duct for 35 programmable LED lights and eight speakers installed on a thin strip.
Morrison says the biggest challenge was bringing power across the Mahurangi River.
“We looked at different options going overhead but then you’ve got full mast boats that could tangle in it. We considered laying the cable just on the bottom of the river, but then you could get it snagged or washed away by logs,” he says.
“Council looked at doing a solar power setup in the bush, but it meant cutting down a whole lot of mature trees, so that wasn’t viable.
“Drilling through the rock underneath the river bed would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and would have taken eight to 10 months, which wasn’t ideal either.
“So I commissioned a company called ScanTec to do a sub-bottom survey. They used a sonar set-up in a boat and mapped the depth and thickness of the mud down to the rock, and told us we had 2m of mud.
“So that’s what we ended up doing. We had a subcontractor drill down under the mud, hit the rock and run the cable along the bottom, on top of the rock.”
The result was far better than they could have imagined, Morrison says.
“Our price was not far off our cost because this is our area and as a community project we wanted to make sure that it was viable financially.”
The concept for the multimedia installation was conceived by artist Hokimai-anahera Rosieur (Ngāti Manuhiri, Ngāpuhi and Te Aupōuri) and commissioned by the Regional Public Art team at Auckland Council.
What: Te Hokinga Mahara (Collection of Memories)
When: Summertime shows at 8pm and 9pm, Friday to Sunday.
Where: Warkworth wharf.
