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Orbital
By : Jason Kelly Johnson & Nataly Gattegno, Futureforms
GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN – 15th edition
Discipline : Art & Photography
Categories : Art Projects / Artwork - Public Space : Gold Certification
Our cities are alive and in constant motion, evolving, changing, transforming our daily lives and connecting us. Orbital spirals into the sky, formed by a curved trajectory around the center of the structure, creating a place for pause beneath it. Intricate on the outside and smooth on the inside, Orbital creates an identifiable marker in the park, a portal to briskly walk through, or a moment to stop and look up to the sky.
Orbital is a contemporary garden folly, exploring geometric and material exuberance. It evokes organic forms found in nature, but also giant robots and futuristic space vehicles. The structure is composed of three coiled legs that spiral towards the sky. The exterior surface is defined by stainless steel origami skins, while the interior space is wrapped by a vortex of colorful tactile shingles.
Orbital is integrated into a landscaped public space nested between two new buildings. The site is very limited and Orbital towers high on a very small footprint. Located in an area of San Francisco that is prone to liquefaction and subsidence, the structure's foundation had to be drilled down a depth of 80 feet (almost 3 times its above ground height).
The geometry is rational to begin with and then transforms into coiled orbital of steel and color. On the outside a textured, tessellated, high definition surface made of stainless steel articulates a towering structure that anchors the site, is visible from afar, attracts and provides visual identity. On the inside a color field or aluminum shingles surprises, but also grounds the visitor to pause, look up, experience and interact with pattern and form in a dramatically different way.
This binary “inside outside” experience of Orbital extends into its daytime and nighttime presence. During the day, Orbital’s exterior takes over, with hints of the colorful interior peeking through, but only revealed to those who step under, or walk through and look up. At night, the interior color surface is lit to give it an internal glow and make Orbital a very different object, glowing and appearing like a lantern in a garden. Slits of light escape the interior to create a very different reading of the geometry as it sweeps upwards.
Collaboration
