Olympia Car Park : STEREO-KINETIC® Facade Olympia Dundee
A massive, continuously moving, kinetic artwork partially covers the East facade of the five-story Olympia car park in Dundee. The design, which incorporates hundreds of freely-moving stainless steel tiles, is said to create the impression of waves blowing over a metallic field of grass. Gusts of wind and traffic cause the shiny metal rectangles to ripple in an ever-changing display.
The STEREO-KINETIC® Wall system originally drew inspiration from the work of American environmental artist, Ned Kahn. Kahn first constructed a “wind veil” 13 years ago on a parking garage in Charlotte, North Carolina using lightweight aluminium ‘flags’ suspended from a series of wires.
From this initial idea, Lang+Fulton have uniquely developed and tested their STEREO-KINETIC® Wall system using their experience of grating products and researching and sourcing the most durable components to achieve a stunning stereokinetic wall cladding effect.
The grating panels were bolted to the structural steel framework of the car park cladding and were shaped to a radius at the corners of the building. On the South and West facades, they were intermittently spaced to include glass inserts. A grating panel with a smaller aperture was used as an infill for the ground-level openings of the car park to provide enhanced security.