Commissioned by fashion brand FENGYI TAN, atelier TUO aspires to design and manufacture a temporary petal-like rotating installation SPINNING SPRING. Large 'petals' are suspended in the air, rotating and swaying in response to the movement of the trusses and models, in attempt to create a free and romantic scene.
FENGYI TAN’s Spring/Summer 23 ‘Moments in the Making’ collection explores the beauty of fleeting moments by documenting roses from bloom to fade. Using light materials, this season’s collection is made up of a wide range of flowers, from flat to three-dimensional, figurative to abstract, using techniques such as braiding, layering and hollowing.——FENGYI TAN 23ss
The venue is located inside the Rock Bund, consisting of rough walls and self-leveling raw flooring. Covering around 400 square meters, the space has a complicated floor height of up to 8 meters and down to 3 meters. The time constraint for site construction is 2 hours, while the demolition is limited to 30 minutes. Thus, the difficulty is creating an efficient scheme that allows fast assembly in a large space while maintaining a romantic atmosphere.
Inside the venue, eighteen pieces of giant ‘petals’ are organized into three clusters, positioned at separate heights, gently rotating in the center of the field. Each petal retains a subtle balance from one another and is easily triggered by a breeze of wind or a light touch from the models. The constantly changing petals flow ethereally in the air, generating a romantic and liberal mood. The lights above reinforced the rough ground with a glow, placing the audience and models in the center of airy ‘petals,’ which echoed the particular venue and enhanced the brand concept.
The truss supports as the main structure. Throughout calculations, separate parts of the installation are balanced stably, standing in the center of the venue. Thus, the installation pieces are mostly prefabricated and easy to assemble, largely reducing the construction time on site.
A fifteen-minute show often requires a large amount of resource consumption, producing substantial construction waste. The project proposes to minimize waste by utilizing reusable materials and industrial products, including steel trusses, turntable motors, and ready-made components. Secondly, the construction implements recycled materials such as steel tubes and joints, thus refusing to generate waste.
Well-developed industrial products are often equipped with efficient set-up tools, speeding up the assembly time. The lightweight truss structure and rotating dining table motor allow four constructors to set up the primary structure within 30 minutes, ensuring sufficient stability. The 18 'petals' have taken reference to the detailing of the fabric light box, which fixed the elastic fabric smoothly upon the steel frames, and "Petals" are naturally hung on the truss. Thus, the construction work was completed within an hour.
