Bblur Architecture has won approval to wrap a giant slide around the Anish Kapoor-designed ArcelorMittal Orbit sculpture in London's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
The London firm – which also worked with Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners on a bridge that spans the roof of the O2 Arena – designed the 178-metre-long slide to loop around the sculpture and observation tower in the London 2012 Olympic park.
The slide will plummet from a 76-metre-tall viewpoint within the sculpture, with visitors reaching speeds of up to 15 miles per hour on their 40-second descent to the ground.
At 114.5 metres tall, the sculpture by artists Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games is the tallest in the UK.
Planning permission was granted to the park's Legacy Corporation yesterday, which said it will be the "world's longest and tallest tunnel slide" on its completion in spring 2016.
The corporation plans to charge £5 per slide, a fraction of the £85 it costs to abseil from the summit of the structure.
"We are delighted to announce that planning permission has been granted to build the world's tallest and longest tunnel slide from the top of the ArcelorMittal Orbit," said the park's Legacy Corporation in a statement today.
The tunnel slide will have an opaque red base but a transparent top that will give visitors views over London on their snaking journey through the latticework of the sculpture.
Bblur Architecture has previously completed a number of infrastructure projects including a bus station with an undulating aluminium canopy in the English town of Slough and an airport terminal topped with a curving roof slab in Gibraltar.
Slides with transparent tops have also recently been installed on the side of London's Hayward Gallery, as part of an exhibition of work by artist Carsten Höller. This combination of "fun" and architecture was the subject of a recent opinion column by Owen Hatherley, who questioned if there is something more sinister at play.