Art News

Excavating a room with a view

Ove Arup and Partners International Ltd. has been appointed to carry out a feasibility study of an unusual and challenging sculpture in the picturesque and traditional Spanish island of Fuerteventura. The sculpture, designed by Eduardo Chillida, is a huge cubic cavern to be constructed inside Mount Tindaya. The Basque sculptor created the idea to explore space and scale.

The cavern sculpture is offset from the centre of the mountain, with measurements on a grand scale of 50-m x 50-m x 50-m high. To explore space visually, there will be two light wells ascending to the top of the mountain, allowing people on the inside to see the sun and the stars.

The construction of such a large underground space will certainly drive the limits of current design. Arup are collaborating with Madrid architect Lorenzo Fernndez Ordez and Scott Wilson Pisold. Initial geophysical studies and geological mapping started in May.

There is great anticipation that this sculpture will be an extraordinary spectacle and attract many people from all over the world, for its artistic prowess or purely for the engineering triumph.