Battersea Roundabout Sculpture (2021)

Client: Littlehampton Welding Ltd
Architect: Wilkinson Eyre
Location: Battersea Power Station, London, United Kingdom

Date: 2021-09-01 00:00:00 +0000 UTC
Tags: Steel, art

Battersea Roundabout Sculpture

The sculpture is designed by Wilkinson Eyre architects and fabricated by Littlehampton Welding Ltd (LWL). It is located within the second phase of the Battersea Power Station regeneration project and situated on the roundabout to access the development by vehicle.

In essence it’s a contemporary representation of the smoke flumes that were previously exhausted from the historical site of Battersea Power Station. LWL were approached to deliver this sculpture within an extremely tight programmed period. From cradle to grave this project was undertaken engineered, fabricated and installed within 12weeks.

It comprises of seven separate parts mostly weighing over one metric ton each, these are bolted together at three locations on each piece. The structure is made up of three circular hollow sections rolled at various radii to create it’s basic shape. Moreover, various sized and thickness laser cut bespoke fin plates are welded and set equal distances to create the ribbed structure. The base is made up of structural steel sections with a rolled perimeter angle that houses and lighting system for night time illuminations.

Format worked closely with the architects to develop the tender scheme to a final fabricatable solution without losing any of the spirit of the piece. The main work undertaken was to modify the form to achieve the wanted tube size while ensuring it could be fabricated from simple rollable arcs. Format also produced the full fabrication geometry for this piece.

Project Team