Advanced Geometry: Engineering Architecture At The Olympics

There’s very little about London’s 2012 Olympics that isn’t controversial. The most recent controversy has been over a sculpture planned for the site, the ArcelorMittal Orbital. Designed by acclaimed artist Anish Kapoor, the sculpture is a 115m continuous loop of tubular steel, topped with a viewing platform.

Despite Kapoor’s appeal – his recent exhibition at London’s Royal Academy was sold out for months – the Orbital hasn’t found universal favour. While some have called it intriguing, others have referred to it as tangled, intestinal or just plain ugly. Whatever your view – and it is very difficult to picture what the sculpture will actually look like from the drawings available – there’s no doubt that it’s a bold structure. How, you might ask, would you build something so non-rectilinear?

Working out such matters is the task of Ove Arup’s advanced geometry unit. Formed by structural engineer Cecil Balmond in 2000, the unit has worked on some iconic – and odd-shaped – projects; notably the ’Bird’s Nest’ stadium for the Beijing Olympics and the Summer Pavilions that stand next to the Serpentine Gallery for a few months every year.

Balmond, who designed the sculpture with Kapoor, is attracted by novelty. ’What is new about [the Orbital] is the geometry and how it is put together,’ he said. ’We want people to forget the engineering, the construction and the materials and simply “experience” it.’

Making engineering invisible is quite a feat, especially for a structure that is, essentially, pure engineering. ’All tower structures are pyramidical,’ Balmond said, ’but we wanted to create a structure with a non-linear form – an orbit that turns and gathers strength from each loop.’