A 40-metre-high piece of public art made from more than 2,000 steel tubes and more than 800 joints in Belfast, North Ireland’s capital, is aimed to inspire the next generation of engineers and help cement peace in Ireland.
It symbolises a rising city – one looking to each new dawn with hope and confidence
Designers liken building Rise to “trying something really big in Meccano”.
The structure – two concentric spheres, one inside the other, which “hover” above the new Broadway interchange in Belfast – was commissioned by Belfast City Council and conceived as a “symbol of unity and welcome”.
Rise, which cost nearly £500,000, was designed and created by artist Wolfgang Buttress and specialists from London-based engineering firm Price & Myers.
Designers said it contained more than 3,000 parts, each made with “perfect accuracy using robotic fabrication machines”, and was built following the creation of a virtual computer model.
The sculpture’s structural engineer, Tim Lucas, said building Rise was like “putting together a big model kit”.
“I used to like Fishertechnik, a German version of Meccano, when I was a kid,” he said.
“Designing and building structures like Rise is tremendous fun, if quite daunting on this scale.
“I’d like to think that Rise might inspire children putting together the latest model kits with their families over Christmas to be the next generation of engineers.
“We are able to build virtual computer models of structures like this before anything real is made.
“We can simulate the effects of wind and snow on the sculpture to ensure it will stand up, whatever the weather throws at it.
“Each of the over 3,000 parts were made with perfect accuracy using robotic fabrication machines.”
Mr Buttress added: “In essence the concept is very simple. I wanted to create a sculpture that could be seen and appreciated in the round from any orientation – physical, emotional or political. “I wanted to suggest the universal, so the sculpture does not have a back or a front. It references the sun and the reeds that were here before us and can be seen as a portal to something less tangible.”
A Price & Myers spokeswoman said Rise was the newest piece of large-scale public art in the UK and based on “geodesic geometry”.
“Ever tried something really big in Meccano?” she said. “Rise is a 10-storey tall sphere structure made from 2,421 steel tubes, with 804 bolted joints and held aloft with 21 carefully positioned legs. The result is two concentric spheres, one inside the other, that hover.”
She added: “A structural trick called tensegrity is used to make the 40-metre tall sculpture stand up. The inner and outer globes are 15 metres and 30 metres in diameter.
“Both are built from a framework of steel tubes arranged in a triangulated pattern. The smaller sphere is held in place by a network of cables that are stretched between the two spheres, pulling the outer one into compression and the inner one into tension, like a three-dimensional bicycle wheel.
“The structure is strong but must be handled with care, like an egg shell, it cannot resist high pressure points. The legs holding up the sculpture are aligned to delicately support the outer sphere, meeting it at an exact tangent.”
Belfast mayor Niall O Donnghaile said: “Rise is a truly magnificent structure – a new icon and a symbol for the new Belfast. It symbolises a rising city – one looking to each new dawn with hope and confidence. It provides a stunning welcome to visitors to Belfast and will be an inspiration to all our citizens for years to come.”