Location: Chelsea Flower Show, London (circa. 2018)
Design Brief: Spirit of Cornwall Exhibition
CAD System: AutoCad Advance Steel
I was presented with a unique opportunity to be sole designer of the metalworks for the Spirit of Cornwall exhibit at the 2017 Chelsea Flower Show.
The main structure was supported by a flat bar lattice frame on either side, together with walkway sections and fence panels, of the same theme.
The way that it had been visually designed by the architect, whatever fixing methods we used needed to be flush and near invisible to the eye. We couldn’t have any protruding bolt heads or threads which presented a challenge of how it should all be bolted together. Not only that, the exhibit needed to be deconstructed into multiple sections.
The solution was that the spacer tubes that run between the flat bar structure should be internally threaded and we would use a combination of countersunk bolts and threaded studs.
By strategically placing the tube spacers, we were able to form a structure that was demountable and moved to its permanent home in Cornwall after the show had ended.
During fabrication, the dish itself had to be spun by a specialist metalworks company, and when we received it, at first measure, it appeared to be within specs. But once the fabricator started putting all the pieces together things just weren’t matching up.
With the fabricator at a loss for what was wrong I had to go out into the workshop and figure out what was going on for myself. As it turned out that although the overall diameter of the dome was correct they had actually spun it to the wrong radius this meant that it was about 100mm too deep at the apex.
After some recalculating we came up with a method for joining all that back together without compromising the overall scheme of the dome piece.
There were a couple of interesting features incorporated into the design. The outlet for the waterfall needed to be precisely level, so I designed a tilting outlet.
Once the structure was installed and water was introduced into the feature whoever was installing had the ability to fine tune the water pour without needing to re-level the entire structure.
There was also the fear of the waterproofing of the feature leaking inside the dome. With all the shifting around it was a real concern.
We had to have a lifting eye in the centre of the dome whilst at the workshop to be able to lift and manoeuvre the structure during fabrication. My suggestion was to permanently weld the nut on the inside of the dome and to make a removable plug that could be periodically removed incase of water ingress.
Both are simple solutions that make a difference to the end product installation and future maintenance.
