England based and internationally acclaimed sculptor, Anish Kapoor, conceived the idea for his stainless-steel design after seeing a sample of a mirror polished stainless-steel sphere sent to him from New Zealand.
WHAT THE PROJECT INVOLVED
The stainless-steel fabrication project consisted of high tensile steel skeleton invisibly positioned to support 76 mirror finished stainless steel spheres. Each of these spheres was one meter in diameter and the assembled structure towered more than 12 meters high.
The spheres were precisely arranged to maintain the invisibility of the skeleton. This achieved the artist’s requirements to have the spheres appear to be floating out of the ground. The segments of the skeleton were attached to each other with high tensile bolting system within the interior spaces of the spheres. The spheres were filled with high density foam to structurally attach them to the skeleton. The foam filling parts were then closed and mirror polished.
The complete structure was mounted inside a custom-built container approximately 3.6 meters’ square by 13 meters long. The sculpture was shipped to England and installed at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. The efforts and talents of New Zealand Engineering resources were essential to the realisation of the sculptor’s vision.
THE CHALLENGE FOR THE TP ENGINEERS
This was a “one of a kind” stainless-steel structure requiring inspired thinking and innovative solutions to achieve the end result. We are proud to have been involved in this unique project and produce a fantastic and memorable product.