ORBITAL

Matthew Millman

• Artists

Orbital is a 34-foot-tall permanent public art sculpture by San Francisco Bay Area-based art and design studio FUTUREFORMS, founded by Jason Kelly Johnson and Nataly Gattegno. Commissioned for the entrance plaza of the Uber Headquarters, now occupied by OpenAI, in Mission Bay, San Francisco, the work acts as both an iconic visual anchor and an intimate space for public interaction.

This project is a deeply considered response to site, project, and place, designed not merely to occupy space but to fundamentally activate the public sphere. Conceived as a contemporary garden folly, Orbital explores geometric and material exuberance. Its dynamic, coiled form suggests a "Creature of the Garden," say Johnson and Gattegno, one that seems to emerge directly from the plaza, connecting the digital with the organic. The sculpture’s dualistic aesthetic evokes natural systems alongside the powerful, awe-inspiring scale of a giant robot or a futuristic space vehicle.

photo_credit Matthew Millman — Matthew Millman

At its core, this project emerges from a mastery of digital craft—where computation becomes a language and fabrication a form of authorship. Each FUTUREFORMS’ work continues a lineage of inquiry, shaping algorithms into architecture and complexity into clarity. Curves born in code are transformed into tangible structures, composed with precision yet alive with imagination. Here, technology is not a tool but a collaborator, enabling sculptural form that is at once engineered, expressive, and wholly new.

Composed of thousands of custom stainless steel and aluminum elements, Orbital is a monumental form built from an intricate assembly of digitally crafted bespoke parts. Each of its three legs rises from a slender column, twisting upward in a fluid motion that blurs the line between interior and exterior. The structure achieves a crucial balance of strength and delicacy, merging engineering precision with sculptural grace.

The sculpture’s rigorous geometry creates two distinct and compelling visitor experiences:

Exterior: The Urban Icon

The towering structure is wrapped in a skin of highly reflective, tessellated, marine-grade stainless steel. The faceted exterior is cloaked in a constellation of fine perforations. This surface establishes an unmistakable visual identity for the site, drawing the eye from a distance. The monumental scale gives it the powerful presence of a giant robot, while its luminous surface establishes it as a landmark by day.

Interior: The Intimate Sanctuary

As visitors step beneath the three coiled legs, they are welcomed into a surprisingly intimate space. The interior surface transforms into a tactile, patterned color field of aluminum shingles. This experience is grounded by the idea that the form comes from the ground itself, as the fluid interior grounds the visitor and makes them feel like they are inside a contemporary, metallic “Creature of the Garden.” By night, these layers become a lantern of diffused light, casting an ethereal glow and establishing Orbital as a beacon by night.

In line with FUTUREFORMS' commitment to designing durable public art that will serve as a cultural asset for years to come, Orbital is constructed from marine-grade stainless steel and aluminum, selected for their longevity and minimal maintenance requirements in the high-moisture environment of the San Francisco Bay Area.