Products used: Stainless steel M16 – M24 bars and 28 bespoke products designed and manufactured
Background:
It is a remarkable discovery to come upon contemporary works of art that serve as landmarks in urban areas. Pae White’s “Somethinging” is a beautiful multi-coloured artwork that was completed in July 2024 and installed at London’s Paddington Station; it symbolises motion and dance.
Selected via a competition and chosen by an independent panel, it is the first piece of art by this outstanding American artist to be shown in London.
Featuring eleven different colours on aluminium panels, it protracts a bright, colourful display. The station is decorated with numerous works of modern art, but one particular sculpture stands out among them all.
Macalloy Involvement:
The project was a unique, double spiral structure made from folded aluminium. The support system was a series of vertical rods to hang the structure and horizontal rods to provide lateral bracing. Due to the complex assembly, installation without angular misalignment wasn’t feasible. To solve this, spherical bearings were incorporated into the end anchorages. Used alongside oversized forks, bespoke pins and retaining cheek plates, this solution allowed for the transfer of loads through greater angles without inducing bending moments into the system.
Special bespoke stainless steel plated connections were used where 3 or more rods required connecting at specific locations, whereas turnbuckles with 3no. welded fin plates were used in locations that 4 rods were to node out at the same point
Finally, the system was pre-tensioned via the use of torque wrenches and strain gauges fixed on a number of rods in order to get the correct amount of prestressing forces into the tension rod system to reach the desired state of equilibrium. Adjustment is possible in the system through utilising both right hand and left hand thread orientations in each system. These threads were in the forks, in turnbuckles that were welded to the structure and within the 4 way nodes. By rotating the rods and inducing this tension, additional stability was introduced to the structure; as well as minimising any movement resulting from weather conditions.
Images with thanks to Oliver Dixon @ Paddington Square & Photographs © Nick Turpin
Structural Engineers: Price & Myers. Project Engineers: Katherine Chimenes, Balazs Bicsak, and Tim Lucas.
Year
2024
Location
Paddington Station , London
Country
UK
Artist
Pae White
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