Architect Zaha Hadid has created a sculptural piece that will be installed at the South Bank Centre in London during the London Design Festival this September.
Called Urban Nebula and resembling a sweeping dry-stone wall of pre-cast concrete blocks, it is part of a project called Size + Matter that will also include a similar giant piece made of Corian and designed by architect Amanda Levete.
Above are some renderings, plus below are photos showing the manufacturing of the pre-cast concrete blocks at the Newark factory of Aggregate Industries, the materials partner on the project.
Urban Nebula will be on show from 15-25 September.
Here is a description of Hadid's piece, followed by an edited press release about Size + Matter:
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Urban Nebula is a sculptural installation that explores the potential of pre-cast concrete as a medium for repetitive and fluid form. By combining traditional repetitive pre-cast moulding techniques with contemporary computer numerical control (cnc) machine moulding, a system of standard elements is created in which each individual component has a unique variation.
The installation is a hybrid of traditional ideas of standardisation coupled with contemporary methods of manufacture that explores the plastic qualities of concrete as a material. It is reminiscent of the rough improvisational characteristics of dry stone walling, yet adopts the smooth polished surface of a stone riverbed.
The work is composed of 150 blocks of black polished pre-cast concrete bolted together to form a perforated wall that seamlessly transforms into street furniture, resonating between architecture as material system and sculptural form.
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SIZE + MATTER FROM THE LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL AND PHILLIPS DE PURY & COMPANY: DESIGN ART PIECES FROM THE UK’S TOP DESIGN TALENT
As part of the programme for 2007, The London Design Festival 2007 has created a very special project art project that will bring members of the public into contact with work by two of the worlds most famous women architects.
Simply titled Size + Matter, the project aims to blur the boundaries between architecture, design, engineering and sculpture and has matched Zaha Hadid, and Amanda Levete with manufacturers of two very different materials to create specific installations that will be placed outside the Royal Festival Hall.
These will remain in place throughout the entire London Design Festival and on into Frieze when they will be auctioned off by world-renowned contemporary art auctioneers Phillips de Pury and Company on 13 October.
These works will be on view in situ throughout the London Design Festival and through to October 13, 2007 when they will be offered at auction on 13 October at 7pm at Phillips de Pury & Company’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale 9, Howick Place, SW1.
The proceeds from the sale of each of these pieces will be distributed between The Royal College of Art to create a bursary for materials research, The London Design Festival and the designers themselves.