Bleigiessen
Bleigeissen Bleigeissen is the sculptural centrepiece of the Wellcome Trust’s headquarters in London. The narrow 30-metre-high atrium space which it occupies reminded the studio of a gigantic gravity chamber and, combined with the pool of water at the bottom, this gave the idea of experimenting with falling liquids to find a form determined by natural forces. After much experimentation the studio found that pouring molten metal into cold water produced extraordinary unique and tiny objects in a fraction of a second. From more than four hundred pieces created, it eventually selected one, just 50 millimetres high, whose proportions and detail best suited the atrium space. The piece was three-dimensionally scanned and enlarged to 30 metres, scaling up its every idiosyncrasy and contortion. It was a shape that could never have been imagined or instinctively formed in clay. Even though this new building had been designed to accommodate a large object, the only way to bring anything inside was through a domestic-scale door. The studio was uncomfortable with the idea of making a huge object out of door-sized pieces bolted together with visible connection lines.
Перейти к оригиналу
