engineering.
Tonkin Liu’s design, a temporary structure for the London Festival of Architecture that can move to each of its five hubs for a day or two, meets the obvious need to be easy to erect and transport, as well as exuding the festival’s theme of ‘fresh’.
A moveable steel structure which resembles the form of flower petals
Its form resembles a freshly cut flower whose petals can be stacked on top of one another, and fit in one Hiab. It also encloses space for talks, social gatherings and exhibitions. It is a showcase for innovative design in steel – the material of its sponsors Corus – and tensile fabric, as the design plays cleverly to their different structural properties to combine maximum drama with utility.
The steel comes in bent circular hollow sections with fabric between them and weighted feet to resist wind uplift. The petals increase in size from 2.7 to 4.3 m high, so each is unique. When erected it covers, and semi-encloses, an area of about 100 m² and it was booked not just for the LFA, but for MIPIM in 2009 as well.
