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Enjoy the View

‘Enjoy the View’ was a site-specific installed platform – an 8 metre by 1.2 metre wide strip of translucent concrete exhibited at the international section of Venice Architectural Biennale (2010). I was one of 37 other participants selected by the Biennale Director Kazuyo Sejima. Located at the entrance of the Arsenale gardens; I wanted the platform and site to draw reference to the engineering and mechanical legacies of the shipwrights of the Venetian Arsenale. I also decided to locate the platform at the entrance of the Arsenale to remove it from the bustle of the main Biennale site, in order to provide a quiet reflective space where the viewer can look across the canal and equally out to the horizon. The undulating surface of the piece reflects an ergonomic characteristic to enable the viewer to lie down, providing a further viewing perspective. The platform can also be viewed from the main Biennale site. The material achieves its translucency due to glass fibres used as additives which conduct light to illuminate the material. The fibres have the capacity to carry light as far as 20 metres, with no significant reductions in brightness and intensity. To transcribe my design the production process incorporated a wooden cast using 3D milling machines. The translucent concrete had previously been tested under factory conditions, however, this was the very first example of this material being used in the public domain. By using this material in this premiere manner I became an advocate of its future use in both architecture and sculpture. A review of ‘Enjoy the View’ was conducted by Hans Ulrich Obrist during an interview with Peter Ebner and Friends at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2010.