This year’s London Design Festival was a head-line act featuring Steuart Padwick’s landmark sculpture ‘Head Above Water’. The award winning British furniture designer created the 9-metre high gender, ethnicity and age neutral installation in support of the Time to Change campaign to remove the stigma of mental illness. Source: Timberbiz
The massive sculpture was made from CLT provided by Stora Enso and delivered from the River Thames by the unusual method of barge crane and installed by a team of professional riggers qualified to work at height (WAH).
Head above Water was designed in four sections each measuring approximately 3 to 5 metres in width, and weighing between 1.5 – 3.4 Tons.
At design stage, it was necessary to consider the complex logistics of installing CLT panels from the River Thames by barge crane, with the limitations of the crane’s load and reach capacity and its ability to only achieve the necessary height during high tide.
The overall installation took just 24 build hours with the final section installed as the sun rose over the River.
Renewable and reusable Head Above Water will be rebuilt and a planting design incorporated as a symbol of positivity and regeneration at the Northfleet transhipment facility on the central section of the Tideway project.
The facility is the main Hub of the ‘More by River Scheme’ which aims to take thousands of vehicle movements off the streets of London, redirecting their movements into the site and then loading the materials onto barges utilising the river to deliver to site.
