Arising from the field of architecture, this installation engages site-specific interventions to create interactive relationships between viewer senses and the built environment. The research aims to re-engage and re-orient perceptions of place, despite the isolating impacts of modern technology and the world we live in today.
The Urban Chandelier is comprised of 999 individually CNC trimmed carbon fibre rods and 6000 reflective triangles hung above a passageway. The installation utilises available light sources and the kinetic energy of the wind to illuminate what otherwise is an underutilised and forgotten city space. The material properties provide for ever-changing effects based on available inputs: gentle or bustling wind, direct light, reflections, or even projections.
Structural systems are traditionally designed to be strong enough to resist dynamic forces; carbon fibre, with its very high strength-to-weight ratio, offers the possibility of rethinking the definition of structure. Through the idea of a ‘soft-structure’, the canopy celebrates the relationship formed between natural forces and optical properties, actively engaging both the public and the environment.
Urban Chandelier was one of five projects chosen through an international competition by the American Institute of Architects and the River City Company. It was be constructed as part of Passageways, a community outreach project that ‘activates the urban alley through architecture.’ The project is currently being transformed into a permanent artwork.