Event Communications Ltd approached us to help them develop a series of 9 fabric wave sculptures to embody the water element of the new Viking exhibition, menacingly titled The Raid!, and which opened June 2021. The waves help create a dynamic & natural flow for visitors as they follow the tour.
Our solution utilised similar details from a project we were proudly involved in with Zaha Hadid, the JS Bach Music Hall – Zaha Hadid | Base Structures, and encompasses a light aluminium modular framing system. Double skinned stretched spandex fabric, patterned specifically for the complex organic geometries, provides a soft sense motion and defines the exhibit space the museum were looking for.
The finished fabric forms add theatre to the installation with a sense of the ocean to fit with the origins of the Vikings. A separate blackout skin fitted between the spandex allows the museum to project imagery onto the fabric as part of the exhibit and because of the modular design, the structures can be used again for future exhibitions.
City placemaking is the art and design of creating public spaces and is often driven by community projects. Whether that’s through decorative art installations, creating…
As part of an exciting £4.5 million transformation of Birmingham’s NEC, Base Structures has installed a stunning fabric façade to the exterior of Halls 1…
When we put fabric structures up, we do all we can to ensure their lifespan is as long as it can be. The key to…
Our brief was to design and install a fabric ceiling system within the museum which would also act as a diffuser for the concealed lighting. It creates a dramatic effect to the interior space and the fabric membrane provides a suitable backdrop for the hanging aircraft display.
We designed, engineered, manufactured and installed the fabric ceiling system for the museum. This includes the fabric, extrusion and fittings. We also fitted a fabric soffit to the building exterior.
The project went very well and has been featured in the architectural press. The new museum space and displays have proved very popular with the public.
For the high quality refit of Leeds City Museum, Redman Design Associates required five large tensile fabric projection screens to be hung in the impressive museum arena.
We designed a steel framed screen with very discreet fabric connection details, and positioned the five screens accurately on a complex arrangement of suspension cables. The projectors were then focused and adjusted to provide a high definition image right to the edge of the screens.
Kensington Palace has been a royal residence since the 17th century, most recently being called home by newly weds the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge when staying in London. Their crash-pad in the capital has recently undergone a major £12 million renovation, overseen by the Historic Royal Palaces Trust and co-ordinated by architects John Simpsons and Partners. This lavish refurbishment is not for the sole benefit of the nation’s favourite couple however – since the Palace reopened in 2012, 50% of the building is accessible to the visiting public, allowing a privileged insight into the daily life of the royal family past and present.
Base Structures created and installed a striped, four sided pyramidal canopy complete with pelmets on all four sides and large decorative tassels, suspended ten metres above the floor. The canopy is intended to provide a regal flourish to the visitor entrance and it certainly delivers, the royal appearance being enhanced by using a material called Diaposon, a man made fabric extremely similar to silk.
Visitors can now enter the palace and purchase tickets in the White Court Courtyard, once an open area but now enclosed with a glazed, steel framed roof.
Jan Blake asked us to manufacture these silk fabric sculptures which she had designed for her client. The hand painted silk sculptures provide a relevant and symbolic feature for visitors to the offices and are a dynamic use of interior space.
We manufactured the ten sculptures which involved patterning the fabric and attaching the fabric to steel frames. Jan then painted the artwork directly onto them.
Appointed by BAA, Stride Treglowan undertook a radical makeover of the International Departures Lounge to create a more stimulating space and enhance the customers travel experience. We fabricated and installed the fabric, printed artwork and supporting steelwork to the Olympus Rings, internal ceiling kites, Matterhorn sculpture, information desk canopy and end bay banners.
This was a complex project with a number of different elements. It was installed during short night shifts. It went very well and was ready in time for the re-openeing of the departure lounge. The works have improved the internal space. BAA are very pleased with it and have reported increased sales in the shopping areas.
Realising an artistís vision and capturing the true essence in their work is an onerous undertaking. Yet often collaboration can yield stunning results. The Aquatic Circus installation at Drake Circus Shopping Centre in Plymouth is one such project.
Ten tensile silk fish structures are suspended in the semi-circular atrium space. These bright fairground coloured fish belong to that imaginary circus created by textile artist Jan Blake. Each fish is suspended by one point allowing it to turn slowly and interact with a neighbouring fish. We created the delicate creatures from steel, fibre-glass rods and silk organza for Jan to painstakingly paint with procion dye. The effect is breath taking. Light and movement now fill the vast atrium space, transformed by an aquatic extravaganza.
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in Fulham Road, London, wanted to transform a new patient seating area into a comforting space which has a private and cocooned feel. To do this, Base needed to complete a suspended lighting rig that could also carry privacy screening into the seating area within the heart of the hospital.
Base were employed to design, manufacture and install the fabric sails and lighting. We could not suspend anything directly from above the seating area and so we had to use tension cables which were rigged horizontally to fix tubular steel frames within a spider’s web of tensioned steel cables. These steel frames allowed us to form a geometric grid within the space, into which we could suspend a series of Hypar feature sails. The spaces between the sails were then used to incorporate the lighting assemblies.
The fabric sails create a contemporary yet comforting feel in the seating area and brighten up the heart of the hospital.
Large advertising hoardings are not everyone’s cup of tea but in terms of sheer scale this one takes the biscuit! At over 6000m2 of roadside advertising area, this project was widely lauded as the largest Out Of Home opportunity available in the UK at that time. Sitting adjacent to the main arterial route from the M60 into Manchester and exposing full frontal glory to the new City of Manchester Stadium, this is one bill board that is impossible to ignore. Exposure was even claimed for airline passengers on the flight path into Manchester Airport!
During the planning application process our client had to guarantee to the Gas-o-meter owners Transco, that clothing the structure would in no way detract from it functioning as originally intended. Therefore prior to receiving approval, extensive structural engineering calculations were produced which predicted that by wrapping the skeletal steel frame within a web of suitably tensioned stainless steel cabling the structure would not deflect sufficiently to stop the rise and fall of the gas chamber within. Thankfully the calculations were spot on and the resulting fully clothed gas holder continued performing unhindered and as unabashed as it had when naked!
An additional USP of this site was that the cable net devised for carrying these super large printed banners allowed for quick, 8-hour removal and re-installation of the media so that a pair of eyes seeing it on the way to work in the morning would be exposed to a different campaign on the way home in the evening. Striking visibility has always been the life blood of the advertising industry.
Jan Blake asked us to manufacture tensile fabric sculptures that she had designed for her client Centrica Head Offices in Windsor, which she could then paint artwork directly onto. The structures were to provide a dynamic use of interior space and to be unique features to impress visitors at the offices.
We manufactured the three sculptures which included the silk fabric, patterning and attaching the fabric to the frames. We were also on site to assist with the installation. This type of material is very delicate and therefore we took extraordinary care to ensure manufacturing went smoothly.
The finished objects work very well in their new environment. Jan Blake was extremely pleased with the forms produced and she painted them in our factory. Centrica were also very pleased with their re-vamped offices.
in Bristol
