We have recently finished the fabrication and installation of a massive 65’ rain drop by Inges Idee for the Vancouver Convention Center. Here is a closer look at some of the steps along the way.

Founded in 1992, INGES IDEE is a group of four German artists who collaborate to create site-specific public art projects. Although each artist is successful in their own right, working as a group allows Inges Idee to enrich its creative process by bringing together a variety of opinions, skills and judgments.  As a group, the artists are able to overcome the challenges associated with the competing requirements and circumstances of site specific artwork.

“We don’t feel bound to a certain “style”; therefore, we’re free to adapt the media that best corresponds to a given site, whether this involves sculpture, architectural intervention, sound, computer animation, or light, etc.”

The four members of Inges Idee are Hans Hemmert, Axel Lieber, Thomas A. Schmidt and Georg Zey – you can find many examples of their work as individual artists as well as their Inges Idee collaborations on their website

The Drop is a 65 foot (19m), slender sculpture in the form of an elegant, abstracted rain droplet; it is a visual and conceptual compliment to both the surrounding landscape and one of the greenest convention centers in the world. The sculpture contrasts with the geometric architecture of the Vancouver Convention Centre and stands almost like a figurehead on a sailing ship. The Drop takes on a soft, round form with the potential to subtly alter its appearance with changes in light and weather. The art piece is a joyful yet sincere dialogue between technical achievement and respect for the natural surroundings. It will be a laconic landmark that resembles water and rain, known features of Vancouver, and pays homage to the power of nature.

Heavy Industries worked with Inges Idee, a team from the Vancouver Convention Center, an engineering team, and a few other stakeholders during the design phase of the project to ensure the final design of the Drop would meet everyone’s expectations and meet requirements given the site conditions. The group even worked together to conduct wind tunnel and dampening testing. The wind tunnel testing was to observe how wind would interact with the Drop to ensure the shape and inner armature of the Drop would be able to stand up to Vancouver’s most extreme weather conditions. The dampening tests were performed on a temporary installation pad behind Heavy’s workshop to ensure the Drop would not deflect or vibrate excessively for its foundation. Once all of the tests were complete and the team was completely satisfied with the design, we began the process of actually building the Drop.

We knew that maneuvering the Drop to perform the necessary bodywork would always be a challenge so before any of the actual fabrication on the Drop began, our team designed and built two stands with wheels and rollers on them to act as a massive lathe that could be used to reposition the Drop in our shop and rotate the Drop so that it could easily be turned for bodywork.

Using the digital model provided by Inges Idee, our team of industrial designers programmed our computer-numerically controlled (CNC) milling equipment to mill out the shape of the Drop from one pound per square foot expanded polystyrene (EPS). Given the Drop’s extreme size compared to the constraints of the milling equipment, and given the fact that the EPS would need to be assembled around the already fabricated steel armature, our designers programmed the mill to make the shape of the Drop in pieces that could be clad to the armature.

Up until this point, computers and CNC equipment were exclusively used to design, tool path, and mill out the shape of the Drop.  When it came to assembly, we were wholly confident that we had perfectly recreated Inges Idee’s envisioned shape of the Drop at 65’. With all of the EPS pieces clad to the armature and sitting on our custom built lathe, our team of extremely talented sculptors and bodyworkers were ready to begin the many hours of bodywork.

The bodywork phase began by perfecting all of the seams that were present between assembled pieces of EPS as well as filling in all of the dimples that naturally occur when milling one pound EPS. When this was finished and the raw EPS was blemish free, our coatings specialists took over and sprayed the entire Drop with a specially formulated blue Polyurea Hardcoat. Think of a Polyurea hardcoat as being similar to a rubber based blanket, it is slightly flexible, yet it is extremely difficult to puncture or tear when it has an EPS core to evenly diffuse impact.

With the EPS completely coated with the Polyurea Hardcoat, it was time for our sculptors and bodyworkers to finish the shape of the Drop by ensuring that the shape and texture were fitting with Inges Idee’s vision. Using specially set up spotlights to manipulate shadows and other proven techniques, our team of sculptors and bodyworkers painstakingly sanded the shape of the Drop until its form was flawless.

When the bodywork on the Drop was complete, it was time for our paint team to take over and paint the Drop the color selected by Inges Idee.  Our paint team had to work in tandem, briskly walking back and forth along the 65 foot Drop and rotating it on the lathe, while other team members continuously mixed paint, to evenly coat the entire piece in a timely enough fashion that the cure and adhere rates would be within the degree of error for a perfect finish. The same process was used with the clearcoat to give the Drop an extremely high gloss. When the final layer of clearcoat was applied, our team revisited the Drop with progressively higher grit sanding and buffing tools, working meticulously to bring the piece to its final finish.

When the Drop’s finish was finally perfect in the critical eyes of our production leaders, we transferred the Drop from the lathe stands that had been its home for the previous 8 months to custom built stands that would sit on the flatbed truck and be the Drop’s support until its final resting place at the Vancouver Convention Center. It was at this point the Drop was brought outside for the first time and we were able to witness its form vertically positioned and its color in bright sunshine – this was a very exciting morning for all of the staff at Heavy that had put so many hours into making the Drop a reality.

The Drop was loaded onto a flatbed truck and driven to Vancouver. It is interesting to note that the Drop was so long that this form of transportation would not have been possible if the upgrades to the highway near Golden had not taken place a few short years ago. Once in Vancouver, the Drop was loaded onto a barge equipped with a crane to travel across Burrard inlet to finally be placed on the deck at the Vancouver Convention Center.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 24th, 2009 at 9:00 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.