Client: Studio Ben Allenarchitect: Studio Ben AllenLocation: Folkestone, United Kingdom
Date: 2017-09-01 00:00:00 +0000 UTCTags: Art, contemporary, timber
Folkestone Triennial
The Clearing
The Clearing is an invited work by London based Studio Ben Allen for the third Folkestone Triennial. The work is a delicate plywood structure of fan vaulted tracery sited in the town’s art centre. The Gothic architecture inspired piece is designed to be an immersive work and one which aims to explore the feelings created by the slender tree like forms. Mirrors on the walls at the ends of the room give the illusion that the structure runs for ever. The Guardian newspaper, in its review of the festival, called installation beautiful.
Our role was to carry out the Structural Engineering analysis and design of the structure and advise on the connections so that the sparse, delicate form was not compromised with heavy, intrusive joints. The structure was checked for a variety of accidental load conditions and in accordance with our standard practice was considered within a 3d parametric environment which enabled updates to form and geometry in the original Artists model to be very quickly considered and returned.
Studio Ben Allen, The Clearing, commissioned by the Creative Foundation for Folkestone Triennial 2017. Images by Thierry Bal.