Urban Nebula
Aug 17th, 2007
Urban Nebula is a sculptural installation that explores the potential of pre-cast concrete as a medium for repetitive and fluid form.
Urban Nebula is one half of Size + Matter, a project by Zaha Hadid and Amanda Levete for the London Design Festival.
For Size + Matter, Zaha Hadid and Amanda Levete have been matched with manufacturers of two very different materials to create specific installations that will be placed outside the Royal Festival Hall.
Size + Matter aims to blur the boundaries between architecture, design, engineering and sculpture.
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 perforate wall that seamlessly transforms into street furniture, resonating between architecture as material system and sculptural form.
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.
October 26th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
I like it … really !
November 12th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
awesome.