BLEIGIESSEN DESIGN BY HEATHERWICK STUDIO
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BLEIGIESSEN DESIGN BY HEATHERWICK STUDIO
Wellcome Trust, London, UK
The Wellcome Trust, a biomedical research charity, commissioned the
studio to design a sculpture for the atrium of its new headquarters. The site
for the sculpture was within an eight-storey high atrium space above a pool of
water. Although a huge space, the sculpture was commissioned after the building
was complete, meaning it had to fit through a standard sized front door.
The vertiginous quality of this space, coupled with the presence of
water, suggested the idea of exploring ways of capturing the dynamic shapes of
falling liquids. Following extensive experimentation, pouring molten metal into
water was found to create extraordinary and complex forms in a fraction of a
second. No two experiments produced the same result. Over four hundred of these
were produced before a five centimetre piece was created and selected as it was
felt it would work well with the building and is the basis of the final thirty
metre project.
This original piece was digitised and exactly replicated using
142,000 glass spheres suspended on 27,000 high tensile steel wires; 15 tonnes
of glass and just under a million metres of wire. The spheres, made in Poland
in a spectacle lens factory, were the result of a collaboration with Flux
Glass, their shifting colour and brightness coming from a layer of dichroic
film set between the two hemispherical lenses that make up each sphere.
Bleigiessen can be viewed on the last Friday of every month at 2pm.
http://www.heatherwick.com/bleigiessen/
You may reach Heatherwick Studio's others projects from my blog archive UK Pavilion Shangai Expo, Extrusions , Bombay Sapphire Distillery and Boat River Loire – France to click below links.
http://mymagicalattic.blogspot.com/2013/01/boat-river-loire-france-design-by.html
http://mymagicalattic.blogspot.com.tr/2013/05/heatherwick-studio-extrusions.html
http://mymagicalattic.blogspot.com.tr/2014/09/bombay-sapphire-distillery-design-by.html
http://mymagicalattic.blogspot.com.tr/2013/05/heatherwick-studio-extrusions.html
http://mymagicalattic.blogspot.com.tr/2014/09/bombay-sapphire-distillery-design-by.html
THOMAS HEATHERWICK
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Established by Thomas Heatherwick in 1994, Heatherwick Studio is
recognized for its work in architecture, urban infrastructure, sculpture,
design and strategic thinking. Today, a team of 90 architects, designers and
makers, work from a combined studio and workshop in Kings Cross, London.
At the heart of the studio’s work is a profound commitment to
finding innovative design solutions, with a dedication to artistic thinking and
the latent potential of materials and craftsmanship. This is achieved through a
working methodology of collaborative rational inquiry, undertaken in a spirit
of curiosity and experimentation.
In the eighteen years of its existence, Heatherwick Studio has
worked in many countries, with a wide range of commissioners and in a variety
of regulatory environments. Through this experience, the studio has acquired a
high level of expertise in the design and realisation of unusual projects, with
a particular focus on the large scale.
The studio’s work includes a number of nationally significant projects
for the UK, including the award-winning UK Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo
2010, the Olympic Cauldron for the London 2012 Olympic Games, and the New Bus
for London.
Thomas is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British
Architects; a Senior Research Fellow at the Victoria & Albert Museum; and
has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from the Royal College of Art, University
of Dundee, University of Brighton, Sheffield Hallam University and University
of Manchester.
He has won the Prince Philip Designers Prize, and, in 2004, was the
youngest practitioner to be appointed a Royal Designer for Industry. In 2010,
Thomas was awarded the RIBA’s Lubetkin Prize and the London Design Medal in
recognition of his outstanding contribution to design.
