"The actual construction was extremely complex," said ESS’s Jeff Burke, "as there’s not a single perpendicular truss or right angle in the entire structure. We used 228m of LT Tower Truss and 24 specially designed and fabricated angled frames to allow the truss sections to interact."
"The outer covering was 700gsm blackout fire retardant pvc, printed on one side to a design by Andy Johnstone," said ESS project manager, Rob Smalldon. "The finished printed area was a staggering 900sq.m in area." The design called for an element of trompe l’oeil, relying on a wrinkle-free exterior to complete the illusion. ESS was awarded the contract for their ability to produce a completely taut skin; no mean feat with that amount of fabric.
64 bottom-tensioning devices, 60 vertical tensioners and 70m of top tensioning rail married the fabric to the ESS steelwork. A crew of six ESS riggers put the entire structure together in only four days, with a further four days ongoing tensioning by a crew of two.
Inside the ‘Tower of Time’, visitors are treated to five interactive, theatrical chambers each one showing the best of British architecture and design from the past, present and into the future. It also shows the best of British rigging thanks to ESS, a leading company in the provision of staging and the installation of modular bespoke structures worldwide.
(Lee Baldock)
