Hasta La Ideas

Construction of the controversial 115 metre-high sculpture that artist Anish Kapoor and structural engineer Cecil Balmond designed for the London 2012 Olympic park is now complete.

Visitors will enter a central elevator to ascend the steel tower, named the ArcelorMittal Orbit, arriving at an observation deck with a panoramic view of the city. To exit, they will be encouraged to climb down a staircase of 455 steps that spirals around the tower’s exterior.

Around 560 metres of red tubular steel form the structure and 250 coloured spotlights illuminate it at night. Internal fit-out will begin later this month and the attraction will open to the public before the games begin in July.

The project suffered a huge backlash when the initial plans were revealed back in 2010. See the comments from Dezeen readers here.

See also: our earlier stories about completed Olympic venues the aquatics centre, the velodrome and the main stadium, and see all our stories about the London 2012 Olympics here.

Photography is by ArcelorMittal.

Here’s some more information from the London Mayor’s Office:

ArcelorMittal Orbit unveiled to the world

Main construction of the London 2012 landmark is declared complete.

ArcelorMittal, tier two sponsor of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the world’s leading steel company, will today offer a preview of the completed ArcelorMittal Orbit – the 114.5 metre sculpture designed by Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond which will stand at the heart of the Olympic Park.

The ArcelorMittal Orbit is being handed over to the London Legacy Development Corporation later this month, so that Balfour Beatty Workplace can complete the fit-out ahead of the London 2012 Games where it will be a ticketed visitor attraction.

The press event will be attended by the team behind the sculpture, including Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond, Lakshmi N. Mittal, Chairman and CEO, ArcelorMittal, and Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, alongside the architects, engineers and builders who have helped bring the project to reality. For the first time, attendees to the unveiling will be able to travel up to the viewing platform and enjoy a panoramic view of up to 20 miles, encompassing the entire Olympic Park and London’s skyline beyond. At 114.5m, the ArcelorMittal Orbit is the UK’s tallest sculpture and stands 22 metres taller than New York City’s Statue of Liberty.

“It gives me great pride to see the ArcelorMittal Orbit standing not only as a completed work of public art but as a physical symbol of the Olympic spirit,” comments Lakshmi N. Mittal, Chairman and CEO of ArcelorMittal. “It makes me very proud that ArcelorMittal plants from across the world contributed to this showcase of the strength and versatility of steel,” he adds.

Boris Johnson: “This 114.5metre-high attraction to trump rivals the world over is a calling card for investment in east London. It is a symbol of prosperity and growth, backed by one of the world’s most astute business leaders, which delivers the strongest message that this part of London is open for business after decades of neglect.

“In addition to the £11billion plus investment that has taken place around the Olympics over the last four years, the ArcelorMittal Orbit will draw visitors to newly regenerated swathes of east London in perpetuity and has changed our skyline and aspirations forever. The development of this area, creating new jobs, homes, schools, and thriving communities beyond the Olympics, is one of the most important regeneration priorities as we lay the ground now to meet the needs of the next 25 years.”

Anish Kapoor: “I am absolutely delighted that construction is now complete and I would like to thank the project team for making this possible and for their work on what is technically a very challenging project. I am looking forward to the Olympics when visitors to the Park will be able to go up the ArcelorMittal Orbit for the first time and I am delighted that members of the public will be able to interact with the work in this way.”

Cecil Balmond: “Anish and I were conscious from the beginning that the ArcelorMittal Orbit would be a lasting legacy to the city and so we wanted to stretch the language of the icon as far we could go. The Orbit is a hybrid, a network of art and structure, and its dynamic is the non-linear. You read into it multiple narratives in space.”

One of the world’s leading artists, Turner Prize winning Anish Kapoor studied in London, where he is now based. He is well known for his use of rich pigment and imposing, yet popular works, such as Marsyas, which filled the Tate’s Turbine Hall as part of the Unilever Series, Cloud Gate in Chicago’s Millennium Park and his recent record breaking show at the Royal Academy, the most successful exhibition ever presented by a contemporary artist in London.

The ArcelorMittal Orbit was designed by Anish Kapoor and one of the world’s leading structural designers, Cecil Balmond, who trained and lives in London, and is known for his innovative work on some of the greatest contemporary buildings in the world, such as the CCTV building in Beijing, as well as many Serpentine Gallery Pavilion commissions.

Construction of the ArcelorMittal Orbit took 18 months and required 560 metres of tubular red steel to form the sculpture’s lattice superstructure. The result is a bold statement of public art that is both permanent and sustainable, with close to 60 per cent of the 2,000 tonnes of steel used in the sculpture being drawn from recycled sources, underlining steel’s status as the world’s most recyclable material. Steel was chosen for the ArcelorMittal Orbit because of its unique properties including strength, modular structure and advantages of weight and speed of construction.

Sitting between the Stadium and the Aquatics Centre, the ArcelorMittal Orbit will be a beacon of the Olympic Park during the Games and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as the area will be known after the Games.

Visitors will be able to take a trip to the top of the structure in a lift and down too if they wish, although they will be encouraged to walk down the spiral staircase, which has 455 steps and has been designed to enable the guests to experience the feeling that they are orbiting around the structure as they descend it.

After the Olympic and Paralympic Games and following a period of transformation, the Legacy Corporation will run the ArcelorMittal Orbit as a visitor attraction with ticketed viewing from the observation decks and a compelling venue for private functions. It will be able to accommodate around 5,000 visitors a day with potential to attract around one million people during its first year of operation. It will have the capacity to accommodate between 400 – 600 visitors per hour, including full wheelchair access.

Last month, the Legacy Corporation announced that the ArcelorMittal Orbit will light up East London after 250 colour spot lights were added to the sculpture. Each can be individually controlled to produce a stunning digital combination of static and animated effects including a 15 minute moving light show every evening after the Games.

Andrew Altman, Chief Executive of the London Legacy Development Corporation, said: “The ArcelorMittal Orbit will become one of London’s most spectacular visitor attractions and a stunning backdrop to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. “Not only will it offer differing views by day and night, but it will light up the East London skyline to become a beacon of the incredible transformation of this part of East London.”

The Legacy Corporation, which will lease the ArcelorMittal Orbit to LOCOG during the Games, has said that 85% of the 50 jobs created in the venue after the Games will go to local people.

As a tier two sponsor of London 2012, ArcelorMittal has committed to funding up to £19.6 million of the £22.7 million cost of the ArcelorMittal Orbit, with the outstanding £3.1 million provided by the London Development Agency. It has been estimated that the resulting visitor attraction will generate up to £10 million of revenue per annum and create up to 50 new jobs following the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Dezeen Wire: design journalists are divided by the announcement that the Olympic Torch by British designers BarberOsgerby has won the overall prize at the Design of the Year awards, presented by the Design Museum in London.

Edwin Heathcote, design critic at The Financial Times is a fan of the torch, claiming: “The design impressively melds functional and symbolic roles.” Heathcote also worries that the credibility of the overall selections are debatable, adding, “There is, perhaps, a sense that these awards reward the obvious.”

The Telegraph has previously compared the torch to a “cheese grater or an ice cream cone” and a commentor on their announcement of the winner added: “Wouldn’t it be far more symbolic of the modern Olympic spirit if the Torch were made in the shape of a huge syringe?”

Angus Montgomery, editor of Design Week, feels there were more worthy candidates on the shortlist and suggests that the selectors have gone for the “most impactful, rather than necessarily the best design of the year.”

Fashion journalists were disappointed to see the Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding dress by Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen miss out to an origami-inspired collection by Issey Miyake.

You can see our previous story about the torch here and our round up of all the category winners here.

London architects Pernilla & Asif have unveiled designs for a pavilion that can be played like a musical instrument for the London 2012 Olympic park.

The circular walls of the Coca-Cola Beatbox will be covered in ETFE plastic pillows that are sensitive to both movement and touch.

As visitors come into contact with the building each pillow will emit different sounds prerecorded by British DJ and producer Mark Ronson from a selection of Olympic sports.

A spiralling ramp will lead up behind the panels onto the roof of the pavilion, which will offer a panoramic view across the park.

See all our stories about the London 2012 Olympics here and check out our Designed in Hackney initiative to highlight creative talent in one of the five host boroughs here.

Here’s some more information from the press release:

Pernilla + Asif design the Coca-Cola Beatbox for London 2012

The designers of the Pavilion have been revealed as the critically acclaimed, emerging London practice, Pernilla & Asif, founded by Pernilla Ohrstedt, 30, and Asif Khan, 31. Pernilla and Asif have a history of collaborating on ingenious projects, and are in the process of designing an iconic building that will innovatively combine experimental architecture and cutting edge sound technology to create a stunning visual and sensory experience.

Called ‘The Coca-Cola Beatbox’, Pernilla and Asif’s pioneering building also acts as a musical instrument. It takes inspiration from Coca-Cola’s global platform for London 2012 – Move to the Beat – a campaign which aims to bring teens closer to the Olympics by fusing sport with their enduring passion for music. The creative concept will enable people to ‘play’ the Pavilion through interacting with sounds embedded within the architecture itself. Visitors will be able to create their own beat for London 2012 by remixing sounds of Olympic sports captured for an anthem that is being created for Coca-Cola by Grammy award-winning producer, Mark Ronson.

The appointment of Pernilla and Asif follows the culmination of a formal pitch process, supported by the prestigious London-based Architecture Foundation, which was initiated to discover the next big architectural talent in the UK and give them a showcase at London 2012. The Coca-Cola Beatbox will be the pair’s largest commission to date and has been designed to deliver a lasting legacy.

In line with Coca-Cola’s approach to achieving its most sustainable sponsorship activation to date, the design will also feature environmentally friendly technology.

Maxine Chapman, Director of Showcasing, London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Project Team, The Coca-Cola Company, said: “With the eyes of over four billion people on London next year, we want to use our long-standing association with the Olympic Movement to shine a spotlight on Britain’s brightest stars and inspire young people to pursue their passions.

“Pernilla and Asif impressed us with their creativity, technical skills and vision. I’m delighted that we’re able to give them such a fantastic opportunity to showcase their talents and passions on the world’s stage. I have no doubt that every visitor to the park will be inspired by their innovative and groundbreaking design, both during and beyond London 2012.”

Pernilla Ohrstedt and Asif Khan, said: “As Londoners we are really excited to be a part of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Coca-Cola, a truly iconic brand, has believed in our practice’s creativity and vision to represent them at London 2012, taking our unique architecture to a global audience.

“We have sought out some of the most innovative engineers in the UK to work with us to realise our vision – a ‘building with a beat’. The Coca-Cola Beatbox will be a sensory experience that fuses design, music, sport and architecture. It will be something that people have never seen or heard before!”

London designer Dominic Wilcox is building up to Britain hosting the Olympic games this summer by nibbling his way through 30 boxes of McVitie’s Jaffa Cakes to build models of UK landmarks and icons.

Watch this movie on Dezeen Screen »

The series includes depictions of the river thames, Tower Bridge, pound coins, the white cliffs of Dover, the Union Jack flag and the queen’s guards.

He used the orange plastic wrapper as a filter to get the appropriate lighting effect for a sunset at Stone Henge.

Other examples of his work on Dezeen include a smart-phone stylus that straps over your nose, coat hooks made from unwashed paint brushes and a series of sculptures that feature tiny characters perched on the hands of vintage watches.

Like Dezeen, Wilcox is based in the London borough of Hackney – see our showcase of design from the area here.

Photographs are by Dominic Wilcox.

Here’s the full story from Wilcox:

It’s quite a big year for Britain with the olympics coming up soon. In celebration of this, McVitie’s challenged me to create some British themed creations using their Jaffa Cakes.

I took my inspiration from friends who described their strange and unique methods of eating them.

I started to nibble and pick away, going through 30 boxes of Jaffa Cakes to try to get shapes that fitted with my British themed ideas.

One problem I had was when I got distracted by the radio and then looked back to see I had eaten the Loch Ness monster.

See the video and pictures of what I came up with below.

Dezeen today launches a new initiative to celebrate the incredible diversity of design talent in the east London borough of Hackney.

Designed in Hackney will showcase world-class architecture and design created in the borough, which is one of the five host boroughs for the London 2012 Olympic Games as well as being home to Dezeen’s offices.

Each day from tomorrow until the games this summer, Dezeen will publish buildings, interiors and objects that have been designed in Hackney, creating a unique guide to the borough’s rich and diverse design community.

The showcase can be accessed via www.designedinhackney.com.

If you’re a Hackney designer or architect and you’d like your work featured, please drop us a line with “Designed in Hackney” in the subject line.

The Designed in Hackney logo has been developed by our Hackney neighbours Zerofee.