Hovering architecture at Covent Garden draws in the crowds

‘Take my lightning but don’t steal my thunder,’ has been designed by London artist Alex Chinneck to compliment the original architecture of the 184 year old market building and was built by a 100 strong team.

The 40-foot-long building gives the appearance that it has broken from its tone base and then floated 10 feet into the air with complete weightlessness.

Constructed from a steel and timber frame, the walls were created using Brett Martin’s Marlon ST Longlife, a structurally strong, lightweight multiwall polycarbonate sheet.

Polystyrene was carved using robotic hot wire cutters and glued to the polycarbonate sheet, before a plaster and granite sand finish was applied to match the architecture of the market building.

Brett Martin’s 10mm Twinwall Marlon ST Longlife was specified for use on the artwork due to its strength and robust qualities and is usually used in roofing and glazing applications to provide a high stiffness to weight ratio.

The artwork was shipped by 10 arctic trucks and installed over a four day period following it being pre-fitted at a fabrication shop to ensure that it all fitted together perfectly.

Designer Alex Chinneck, said: “As a young sculptor ambition is a necessity for the evolution of my practise and growth of my career. My ideas however are always considerably beyond my means and capacity to produce them and limited resources are forever an obstacle.”

 “With the incredibly generous support of Brett Martin it has been possible to realise my largest and most challenging project to date, a hovering building on Covent Garden Piazza.”

Brett Martin Plastic Sheets,
24 Roughfort Road,
Newtownabbey,
Co. Antrim,
BT36 4RB

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