Serious Stages Backs London 2012

Serious’s project manager Steven Corfield says, “We’re delighted to be involved in such a prestigious showpiece for the London 2012 Bid.”

The 15 metre wide by 22m long and 8m high custom designed building provides 300 square metre of exhibition space and is based on one of Serious’s standard one bay ‘Orbit’ roofs. It incorporates several bespoke features, including an extension housing a ‘Pepper’s Ghost’ hologram effect of GB’s quad Olympic gold medallist Sir Matthew Pinsent.

The structure’s total weight is 23,750 Kgs, including 1,800 Kg of toughened glass around the perimeter of the base, allowing people to look through into the experience. Constructing the Orbit’s bottom panels from glass was one of the most challenging construction aspects of the project explains Corfield, “Working with glass was a new direction for us. We received fantastic support from Paul Moores Of Glazing Services in dealing with the safety issues of installing such large sheets of glass in a temporary structure in close proximity to the public”.

The Experience can accommodate 55 walk-through visitors at any one time, and takes approximately 5 minutes to view.

Serious installed a special false floor inside, allowing plasma display screens to be inset around a map of London, illustrating how the different areas will be transformed if the Bid is successful. A internal dividing wall across the Orbit also contains another series of inset plasmas. Serious recommended Atlantic Enterprises to design and construct the internal sets.

Four of the structure’s external silver and black skins feature large graphics of British athletes, which were commissioned by Serious from Essex-based Imaginators.

Serious supplied a crew of 20, working in continuous shifts, to erect the building in just two days. Trafalgar Square’s World Heritage status requires all surfaces to be protected from direct contact with any of the building’s superstructure, so everything is mounted on plywood bases and spreader boards.

Manual handling vehicles like forklifts or cherry pickers were also subject to restricted use, and could not make direct contact with the ground, all of which contributed to it becoming very much a ‘hand-built’ project.

All structural calculations and health and safety issues for the building and statue were undertaken by Dragan Kuzmanov, who worked closely with the GLA and several other regulatory bodies. Serious’s site production manager was Ellie Hutt.

The Statue

Serious Stages also commissioned the 9 metre high athlete statue, fabricated the steel skeleton and produced all the wind-resistance and base calculations. It weighs approximately 1000 Kgs and is primarily ballasted by 200 Kgs of the weight located in its base. Atlantic Enterprises then clad and textured the statue in fibreglass before painting it.

The statue was rigged in two parts using a 30 tonne crane. The components arrived at 9.30 pm and the statue was erected by midnight. The torso, arms and head were covered in a large white sheeting material that made for a bizarre, ghostly effect when swung across Trafalgar Square and craned into place. The shrouding concealed all ….. prior to unveiling at the official press launch.

Corfield sums up, “It’s been hugely satisfying to see all the differing aspects of the project - statue, glass, images, set, - come together in an action-packed two day build. Everyone has worked as one team to achieve a truly superb result.”