At the beginning of 2013, the Kindergarten was setting up shop in our new offices in the centre of Bucharest. As a cohesive group formed around our workshops and events, we decided to take things into our own hands and look for projects and competitions to work on together. Meanwhile, our previous endeavour, the Shaorma Tensegrity Structure, lay dormant somewhere in a basement. As soon as we saw this call for projects from the German Marshall Fund of the US, looking for a sculpture to mark the 5th anniversary of the Black Sea Trust, we knew we had an instant winner.
A quick team was assembled, comprised of Tania Ignat, Oana Popovici, Laurentia Ghita and myself.
The brief asked for young designers to imagine a symbol of cooperation and harmony between the countries bordering the Black Sea, easy to mount and dismantle, and within a tiny 2000$ budget (prize part of this sum). Here we were, with an (easily-) dismantled set of 4 round steel bars and various metal cables left over from the last workshop. Now the number of countries around the Black Sea is 9, and the way we pictured the monument was a metal cloud of beams, each end of a beam representing one country, all of them interconnected. But all we had was 8 ends, and one spare beam we managed to locate from the leftovers pile.
However, the other, much more important ingredient was our expert knowledge of generative design.
Using thesame algorithms that generated the initial structure, we factored in the 5th beam, and ran tensegrity simulations until we had reached a stable form. We now had 5 beams with 10 ends for 9 countries, which was quite fortunate, since one was supposed to go into the ground, for support. The ground became a slab of shiny steel, cut in the shape of the Black Sea.
Here are the submitted images and the text:
The Black Sea has always been the cradle of East-European civilization, the geo-political space around it functioning around a cultural-economic symbiosis. The central point of this system is the sea itself, a liquid network that facilitates a vast exchange of goods, culture and information between its surrounding civilizations.
The sculpture entitled “Tension of equilibrium” is the physical translation of existing relations between these states. Surfaced out of the waters of the Black sea, a network of attracting forces stands as a testament to the cultural interchange that goes on for millennia.
Its base is the sea itself, reflecting this landscape of communication. The material of the sculpture is timeless steel, able to withstand the trials of time and weather. Its appearance speaks not only of networks and interconnectedness, but of a tradition in sailing, of masts and wires superimposed while passing each other on the sea. Each of the 9 open ends of the steel pipes represents the states participating in the Black Sea Trust, their contours illuminated from within the end-caps. The 10th cap is welded right on to the surface of the Black Sea, as if the whole structure is spawned from within.
The sculpture can only work if all of the elements are in place – if one is taken away, the structure will collapse. The inner flow of forces and the way elements alternate between tension and compression is similar to the flutter of human networks, so that the only thing keeping it standing is this carefully balanced interplay of forces into a harmonious form.
And then we waited. On the day we received the news, we were at the office, eating cupcakes, that we rationalized as being a good comfort food in case we lost. During the fabrication phase that was soon to follow, an innumerable number of them was to be consumed, and a lot of adventures to be had.
In about a month, we had to make everything work perfectly, fit within the budget and look picture perfect for the upcoming high-profile event that marked the 5th anniversary of the BST. Details were drawn, models were tried out, stuctural engineers were pestered (Gheorghe Ionica, our perpetual saviour), and especially, the hard-fabrication (cutting and welding the base, re-drilling the “masts” and setting the wires up for quick assembly). We owe a great deal to the people at Krautz Production, who made do with the tiny budget, helped us with their experience and provided a good place to proof-assemble the whole thing before the grand show.
At the end of it all, the night of the anniversary was perfect – filled with praise and awe from esteemed diplomats. In fact, we still owe mr. Craig Kennedy a miniature of the sculpture. One day..
Design is Bravery 