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.

Irish architects O’Donnell + Tuomey have extended a red brick warehouse in central London to provide a new home for The Photographers’ Gallery.

Top image is by Kate Elliot

Black-rendered walls overhang the original Victorian brickwork to cover the new fourth and fifth floors, which both contain galleries and are lit by a two-storey-high, north-facing window in one corner.

Lectures and workshops will take place on the third floor, an environmentally-controlled gallery is on the second floor and offices are on the first floor.

Part of the facade is cut away and glazed to reveal the cafe and bar at ground level, and a digital wall in the reception area will present a changing selection of projects from both professional photographers and the public.

A bookshop and print salesroom occupy the basement.

The ground floor is clad in black polished terrazzo and hardwood panels that match the thickness of the new rendered walls, while large windows with matching hardwood frames on the upper levels afford views towards nearby Oxford Street and Soho.

The gallery will reopen to the public on 19 May.

See more stories about galleries on Dezeen here.

Photographs are by Dennis Gilbert.

Here’s some more explanation from the gallery and a statement from the architects:

The Photographers’ Gallery unveils new home designed by O’Donnell + Tuomey

The Photographers’ Gallery will unveil its new home for international and British photography in the heart of London’s Soho on Saturday 19 May 2012. The Gallery’s opening will mark the conclusion of its ambitious £9.2 million capital campaign, which has been generously supported by Arts Council England’s Lottery Fund alongside a range of Trusts, Foundations, corporates and individuals.

Award winning Irish architects O’Donnell + Tuomey were commissioned to redevelop The Photographers’ Gallery in 2007 and construction on the building began in Autumn 2010. The transformed building features a two storey extension that will double the size of the previous exhibition space. Providing a platform for an enhanced programme of exhibitions, the generously proportioned galleries will showcase established and emerging photographic talent from the UK and around the world.

A sculpted terrazzo entrance with an open plan design will connect the ground-level Café and lower-ground Bookshop to the street, creating a welcoming meeting place and lively hub for visitors. A centrepiece of the ground floor will be The Wall, a digital display which will present guest-curated projects, artist commissions and collaborative photographic work involving the public.

Extending over a further five floors, the original Victorian red-brick warehouse will be linked to a modern steel-framed extension through an external sleeve of black render, terrazzo and sustainably sourced Angelim Pedra wood. The architects have created numerous links between exterior and interior, punctuating the building with large feature windows which function as apertures onto the urban realm around Oxford St.

A new environmentally-controlled floor will create opportunities to show more work from archives and museum collections and higher ceilings in the top floor galleries will provide dynamic spaces for large-scale and moving image works.

Situated at the heart of the building between the two main exhibition spaces will be the Eranda Studio. Placing an emphasis on the Gallery’s education programme, this floor will feature a full schedule of talks, workshops and events. Introducing permanent elements to the programme, the Eranda Studio will include a camera obscura and a Study Room where the public will be able to access an archive of material related to exhibitions and events which have taken place since the Gallery was established in 1971. Also featured on this floor will be Touchstone, a quarterly display of a single, groundbreaking photograph.

Complementing the enhanced facilities for the public programme will be new spaces for the Bookshop, Print Sales Room and Café. The Bookshop will offer the latest releases as well as hard-to-find art and photography titles and a range of niche cameras. The Print Sales Room will see the relaunch of The Photographers’ Gallery Editions, in which a world-renowned photographer donates a limited-edition print of their work to benefit the Gallery’s public programmes. The new street level Café will be run in partnership with Lina Stores, the oldest family run delicatessen in Soho, and will boast an Italian menu of freshly-made dishes and baked goods.

A new visual identity for the Gallery has been created by North, one of the UK’s most respected and innovative design practices. Inspired in part by the building’s architectural design, this new visual identity will boldly communicate the Gallery’s vision both within the building and beyond.

The Photographers’ Gallery staff together with its Board of Trustees has raised £8.84 million to date towards its projected £9.2 million capital campaign target. Funds raised include a £3.6 million grant from the Arts Council England’s Lottery Fund; £2.4 million from the sale proceeds of the Gallery’s previous building at Great Newport Street and £2.8 million from Foundations, Trusts, individuals, corporates, an auction of donated photographs held in 2011 and other public funds. The gallery plans to raise the remaining £360,000 for its public programme through naming rights for the top floor gallery and public appeal.

Architectural Statement

The Gallery is located at a crossroads, between Soho and Oxford Street. The corner site is visible in a glimpse view through the continuous shop frontage of Oxford Street. Ramillies Street is approached down a short flight of steps, leading to a quieter world behind the scenes of London life, a laneway with warehouses and backstage delivery doors.

The brick-warehouse steel-frame building is extended to minimise the increase in load on the existing structure and foundations. This extended volume houses large gallery spaces. A close control gallery is located within the fabric of the existing building.

The lightweight extension is clad in a dark rendered surface that steps forward from the face of the existing brickwork. The street front café is finished with black polished terrazzo. Untreated hardwood timber framed elements are detailed to slide into the wall thickness flush with the rendered surface. The composition and detail of the hardwood screens and new openings give a crafted character to the façade.

A deep cut in the ground floor façade was made to reveal the café. The ground floor slab was cut out to lead down to the basement bookshop. An east-facing picture window and the north-light periscope window to the city skyline were added in response to the specific character of the site.

(Mostly) Designed in Hackney: east London designers Dominic Wilcox, Ed Carpenter, André Klauser, Barnaby Barford and Donna Wilson have created a range of alternative souvenirs for visitors to east London during the Olympic games.

Three of the designers are based in Hackney: Dominic Wilcox will make a vinyl record featuring the sounds of things being made in east London, Ed Carpenter has created a series of name badges featuring cockney rhyming slang and his colleague André Klauser offers a paperweight shaped like the bollards found along east London canals.

Donna Wilson, who’s just over the border from Hackney in Tower Hamlets, designed a series of exercise books that are decorated with pictures of Londoners exercising and include tips for enjoying the city’s parks and pools on the back.

Meanwhile Barnaby Barford has created a series of miniature porcelain houses, shops and a public house, each modelled on east London buildings with a story to tell.

The series is commissioned by arts organisation Create, and curated and produced by Thorsten van Elten.

See alternative commemorative plates for last year’s royal wedding here and rapid-prototyped souvenirs that can be emailed to loved ones and printed locally here.

See all our stories about the London 2012 Olympics here.

See more about design in the east London borough of Hackney here.

Here’s some more information from Create:

CREATE 2012 Souvenirs

CREATE has commissioned design authority Thorsten van Elten to work with five east London designers and artists to create some well-considered souvenirs to celebrate east London and its cultural heritage. CREATE 2012 Souvenirs is a series of irreverent London souvenirs made in the UK and will be the desirable antidote to the overly-commercial, tacky souvenirs on sale across London this summer. The souvenirs go on sale the first day of CREATE’s summer programme, Thursday 21 June.

The five designers are Barnaby Barford, Ed Carpenter, André Klauser, Dominic Wilcox and Donna Wilson and the designs include a series of three exercise books that illustrate some of the best places to exercise in London, a cast-iron multi-purpose paperweight/bookend/doorstop based on East London’s Regent’s Canal mooring bollards made in a local foundry and a series of bone china miniature east London landmark houses and shops. Prices will range from £10 – £50 and each item will be embossed as a ‘CREATE 2012 Souvenir’.

Hadrian Garrard, Director of CREATE, said: “We are very pleased to be working with a group of talented east London designers to create unique souvenirs which show off the best of east London designers and UK manufacturing. We have commissioned a series of fun and desirable products that will last as a special reminder of a huge year for east London.”

CREATE Souvenirs will be on sale in selected shops and online via the CREATE website from 21 June.

Deutsche Bank is the main sponsor of CREATE 2012’s summer programme.

Exercise Books by Donna Wilson

Donna has always been interested in words with double meanings and uses them often in her work. For example ‘Tell me a tale’ written in a fox’s tail and a compliments slip with a complement on it. Donna has designed a set of three Exercise Books with illustrations of people doing exercise, loosely relating to the Olympic Games. Living and working in east London, Donna is very familiar with the parks, the lido and east London cyclists and she will be sharing some tips for parks and pools on the back of the books. Donna is known for her collection of knitted creatures and cushions. She was named Designer of the Year at the 2010 British Design Awards.

Regents Domestic Bollard by André Klauser

Water and canals have played an important role in the development and connection of east London, and canals have recently had a massive surge in popularity. André has created a book end/paperweight/door stop based on the mooring bollards along east London’s canals. The bollards will be cast in iron by a foundry based on Regents Canal, by Broadway Market in Hackney. The company previously cast fences for the British Museum and National Gallery. André has previously designed the Mechano, a chair inspired by the aesthetics of industrial shelving.

Sounds of Making by Dominic Wilcox

Dominic Wilcox has created a vinyl record that celebrates the act of making things and the unusually high number of skilled ‘Makers’ based in east London. Sounds include ‘The sound of making an outfit for Lady Gaga in Hackney’, ‘The sound of a book binder at work in Walthamstow’ and ‘The sound of a record being pressed by a company which had to relocate from what is now the Olympic Park’. Dominic’s previous work includes his War Bowls, made from melted plastic army figures, as well as his Watch sculptures, built on the faces of wrist and pocket watches.

Cockney Rhyming Badges by Ed Carpenter

Ed Carpenter has designed a series of colourful gilt and enamel badges that celebrate the dying art of Cockney Rhyming Slang. Sold in sets of three, there will be three collections available based on the subjects of food, work and compliments/swear words. Ed Carpenter also designed the celebrated Pigeon light.

Houses by Barnaby Barford

Barnaby Barford has designed a set of five bone china miniature houses depicting homes, shops and a public house all with a story attached to them. The houses will depict a small part of the long history of east London and will include a house on Cable Street, scene of clashes with fascists in 1936; E. Pellicci, an Italian café in Bethnal Green which has been in the same family for over 100 years; The Golden Pound pound shop; The Blind Beggar Pub; and the former home of Benjamin Waugh, the founder of the NSPCC. The houses will be double–sided and will feature 10 different landmark buildings. Barnaby is known for his ceramic figurines, made by reconfiguring found porcelain figurines to create more contemporary figures.

Internet giant Google will run this shared workplace for startup technology companies that interior designers Jump Studios have just completed in the area nicknamed Silicon Roundabout in Shoreditch, London.

Occupying a seven storey building, the Google Campus contains a series of flexible open-plan workspaces and lockers that accommodate hot desking.

Informal meeting rooms and small kitchens are contained within shipping containers, as are the lockers.

At ground level is a reception desk decorated with multicoloured Duplo bricks, beyond which a wall of reclaimed fruit crates provides shelving for books, magazines, pin boards and clocks.

Red industrial shutters separate the reception from a presentation room at the back, which can also be subdivided into two.

A cafe filled with plywood furniture and a workshop for non-members occupies the lower ground floor.

In the past we’ve also featured Google’s UK offices, as well as their engineering headquarters. See all our stories about the company here.

Photography is by Gareth Gardner.

Here’s some more text from Jump Studios:

Google Campus

Google Campus is a seven storey co-working and event space in the centre of London’s Tech City, otherwise known as Silicon Roundabout. The project, run by Google UK aims to fuel the success of London’s tech start up community.

Working with partners Seedcamp, Tech Hub, Springboard and Central Working, the primary function of Campus will be to provide office space for startup companies, but the facilities will also host daily events, offer regular speaker series with leading technology and entrepreneurship experts, hold networking events and run a constant mentoring program where Google staff will share their experience and expertise with residents.

Non-residential registered users will have access to the cafe and co-working space on the lower ground floor.

The design challenge was to take an unprepossessing seven-storey office building and to create an interplay between dynamic, open, social spaces and more intimate working hubs, with flexibility to accommodate a shifting workforce and a diverse program of events.

Much of the architectural focus has been on opening up and connecting the ground and lower ground floors programmatically to play host to a series of socialized spaces, from reception and informal meeting areas to theatre, cafe and workshop spaces.

Furthermore the overall look and feel of the building was designed to reflect the nature of the future occupants of the building: young start-ups who are just about to kick off their careers rather than well established corporate companies. By stripping back the building to its core, exposing all services, revealing the existing structure of ceiling slabs and columns and combining this with utilitarian and inexpensive materials such as linoleum and plywood a raw aesthetic has been created not dissimilar to a garage or workshop.

This low-tech environment has then been furnished with several autonomous objects, which emanate a strong presence in the space:

In the reception visitors are welcomed by a reception desk partly made from multi- coloured Lego bricks – a nod to Google’s founders who always had a special fondness for the Danish toy building blocks – in an otherwise unbranded environment.

A large inspiration wall made from reclaimed vegetable crates dominates the holding area. The wall can be used as shelving for books and magazine or to display objects and artefacts that help tell the story of the building and its inhabitants. The first exhibition installed for the launch of the building revolves around iconic objects from the world of communication and consumer electronics.

Towards the rear the holding area opens up to a large presentation room offering seats for up to 140 people. The two spaces can be subdivided by means of a bright red roller shutter which contributes to the industrial aesthetic of the environment.

The loading bay next to reception has been converted to accommodate up to 40 bicycle stations to encourage cycling.

Working areas, which occupy the upper five floors of the building, are open plan. They incorporate multi-functioning container units that separates circulation from the main office space and offer hot desking, personal lockers, recycling stations, video conferencing / meeting booths and a micro kitchen. It is complemented by a soft seating area facing the micro kitchen, along with an upholstered nook offering respite from the hustle and bustle of the working areas. Large panels upholstered in a neutral grey fabric along the walls improve the acoustics of the space and double up as pin-up surfaces.

Access to both the top floor flat roof and the lower ground floor courtyard has been introduced to offer up an enhanced experience of the building. The top-floor flat roof has been timber decked and will be used for cinema screenings and social gatherings. Working with landscape artists ‘The Wayward Plant Project’ the lower ground floor exterior space has been transformed into a timber decked patio featuring moss walls and a fern garden, alongside flowers that are technologically enhanced to tweet when in need of water! This external space is open to residents of the building as well as visitors of the adjacent café.

The design of the café follows the same logic and employs the same materials that have been used elsewhere in the building. The coffee bar itself sits kiosk-like in the centre of the floor and divides the space into two separate zones: the café towards the rear featuring bespoke upholstered banquet seating and small benches made from simple, oiled plywood as well as a large mural by graphic artist Luke Embden.

A large workbench for informal workshops and seminars occupies the front of the space. The half-pipe room behind a wooden warehouse door offers a calm and muted atmosphere to brainstorm new business ideas or simply relax after lunch.

Project Details:
Project: Campus
Location: 4-5 Bonhill Street, London, UK
Total floor area: ~2,300 m2
Capacity: ~ 200 desk spaces, 16 meeting rooms of various sizes, 2 presentation and event spaces (130 / 75 person capacity), informal work + break out spaces, café
Project cost: £ 2.2 M

Project Team:
Client: Google UK Ltd.
Architect: Jump Studios (Shaun Fernandes, Markus Nonn)
M&E: Medland Metropolis
Contractor: Como
Furniture: Viaduct Bespoke Joinery: Key Joinery

Construction Materials:
Reception:
desk: MDF, back painted glass, Duplo bricks, painted aluminium
feature wall: reclaimed fruit crates, chipboard, steel
floor: Forbo Marmoleum real

Café:
coffee kiosk: oiled spruce plywood, plasterboard, Formica HPL, Dupont Corian, Egger MFC workshop table: MDF, solid surface material
halfpipe: MDF / plywood, Heuga 731 carpet tiles
banquet seating: MDF base structure, seating pads upholstered in Kvadrat Hallingdal 65 fabric benches: oiled spruce plywood
wall benches: mdf, seating pads upholstered in Kvadrat Steelcut Trio 2 fabric
floor: Forbo Marmoleum real

1-4th floor:
container: MDF, oiled spruce plywood container
benches: MDF, seating pads upholstered in Kvadrat Steelcut Trio 2 fabric teapoint: oiled spruce plywood, Egger MFC, sinks: Franke, taps: Bristan
break out wall: Masterlite Acoustic pro block, painted acoustic paneling: Fabritrak system, upholstered in Kvadrat Remix fabric banquet seating: MDF base structure, seating pads upholstered in Kvadrat Hallingdal 65 fabric
floor: Forbo Marmoleum real

Furniture / Lighting:
Hay, Modus, Very Good & Proper, Branch Studios, Moroso, Bene, Magis Muuto, Luxo, Erco

Dezeen Wire: the restoration of historic tea clipper the Cutty Sark in London by Grimshaw architects has been derided by architecture critics and conservation experts after being officially reopened by the Queen yesterday. Here’s a round up of what people are saying.

Writing in The Guardian, Steve Rose says the decision to sit the ship on a glass plinth has resulted in the impression that: “It’s no longer a ship, nor quite a building, but some bizarre hybrid of the two.” He claims that the experience improves once inside though. “There’s something bracing about standing ‘underwater’ and looking up along the ship’s copper-lined keel.”

The Telegraph reports that conservation groups are upset that Grimshaw’s intervention obscures the lines of the ship’s hull, quoting sailor and architect Julian Harrap who said: “Why on earth hoick it up into the air? Why do you have to put these bloody great beams right through the middle of it, to damage the fabric of it?”

Over on Twitter, Building Design editor Amanda Baillieu asks, “Would it have been a nobler end if the Cutty Sark had sunk?”, while the Sunday Times architecture critic Hugh Pearman said, “Haven’t been there yet but does restored Cutty Sark looks like a ship half-in, half-out, of a bottle?”.

Meanwhile, the BBC reported that Cutty Sark director Richard Doughty defended the renovation, claiming the solution creates “a very different experience, offering a light environment in the Cutty Sark’s new elevated position.”

See our previous story about the Cutty Sark here, all of our stories about Grimshaw here and lots of stories about boats here.