Client: Loop.pHartist: Loop.pHLocation: Letchworth, United Kingdom
Date: 2014-10-01 00:00:00 +0000 UTCTags: UK, art, weave, glass, fibre, carbon, temporary, structure
Archilace
A Ramboll project
he Letchworth Archilace structure by artists Loop.pH takes the form of a 4.3m tall by 5.5m wide arched tunnel formed of interwoven or ’laced’ glass fibre reinforced polymer rings. The structure is then reinforced with straight lengths of carbon fibre/polymer rods which are bent and held within the plane of the mesh. There are no mechanical fixings used to fix the rings together. The overall stability of the structure is provided purely by the constraint provided by adjacent hoops, the in-plane stiffness of arch and by ballast within its feet.
We carried out physical testing of a number of test weaves to record the structural performance and then a highly involved structural analysis which pushed the capabilities of the Rhino/Grasshopper/Karamba environment to the limit. The pattern of carbon fibre reinforcement was generated by in-house scripting in the Grasshopper environment.
The structure was transformed by imaginative lighting and provided a stunning backdrop to the 2014 Fire Festival in the Garden City.