Meta, Upperplace

Zhongshan, Guangdong, China

Project details
Client

Teddy Lo

Duration

2020 – 2022

Services provided by Buro Happold

Computational engineering

Meta is a piece of vibrant, place-making public art, which forms the centrepiece to the new Upperplace development in the Chinese city of Zhongshan.

The 4.5m-tall geometric sculpture is embedded with dynamic LED lighting, which creates an arresting spectacle and is at the core of identity-shaping for this new community.

It is the dreamchild of Hong Kong-based artist Teddy Lo, who specialises in works of art that use light – particularly LED technologies. His work explores “neo-transcendental ideas” – the integration of spiritual ideas in the physical-scientific world.

Challenge

The artist approached Buro Happold for support in bringing his vision to life. The form of the sculpture is the result of a minimal surface algorithm which is subsequently split by a polyhedron. A key feature of the sculpture is that where this split occurs between the two pieces of geometry, a series of planar curves are formed.

Along these curving planes, the sculpture comes to life though the use of LED artistry. This is realised by the use of a steel channel which houses all wiring and LEDs, as well as a curved inner portion to reflect the light outwards from the sculpture.

The sculpture is constructed from cast steel, with 3mm-thick walls, with a patina finish. As this project took shape through the Covid-19 pandemic, much of our work with the fabricators had to be done through video calls, which brought an added complexity to ensuring a high-quality finish was achieved.

Photograph capturing Meta Upper Place sculpture in Zhongshan, Guangdong, China
Buro Happold worked with artist Teddy Lo to create Meta, a dynamic new piece of public art inviting contemplation at the Upperplace development in Zhongshan. Image: Teddy Lo.

Solution

Teddy Lo worked with our team of computational experts in a series of workshops in Hong Kong to explore the challenges, initially working with a single piece of steel cross-section, mocked-up as a model of the 3D-printed channel that would ultimately house the light source.

Upon investigating the freeform geometry, it was realised by the project team that the channel that will host the LEDs and wiring would have a singularity at each edge of the polyhedron, meaning complex joints would need to be devised to enable the stream of light to appear constant and smooth in movement. Equally, our experts realised the space in which the channel exists along the flat sides of the polyhedron undergoes spatial variations, leading to further complexities around understanding the geometry of the channel and the way the light will act within it.

Buro Happold and Teddy Lo working on designs for the Meta Upper Place sculpture
Teddy Lo worked with our team of computational experts in a series of workshops in Hong Kong to explore the challenges associated with bringing the piece to life. Image: Teddy Lo.

The Buro Happold team worked closely with the artist and the fabricators to study various iterations of the artwork, to refine the design and create the optimal impact. It was important to model how the light would react to different versions of the 3D shape to ensure the aesthetics of the artist’s vision were fully realised.

We supported the artist and fabricators to design-out risk as much as possible from the fabrication process and liaised remotely with the Chinese fabricators to ensure they fully understood the subtleties of the parametric design, to ensure that the LED channels maintain the integrity of the light display from all viewing angles.

Photograph capturing Meta Upper Place sculpture in Zhongshan, Guangdong, China
The 4.5m-tall geometric sculpture creates an arresting spectacle and is at the core of identity-shaping for this new community. Image: Teddy Lo.

Value

Our work on the project helped to ensure the artistic vision was realised and maintained despite the complex geometries and challenging lighting parameters of the sculpture. Our work was critical in modelling the way the LED would reflect differently in different parts of the freeform geometric shape, and in supporting the artist as well as the fabricators to bring the piece to life.

We were able to maintain the integrity of the vision, from whichever angle the viewer approaches this piece of transformational public art that will attract people to and build interest around this new development in the city.

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