Celebrating 50 years of success, global fashion retailer Zara returned to A Coruña, Spain, where it all began with its first store in 1975. The anniversary was commemorated with ’50 Songs of the Sea’, a kinetic installation installed within the 28m diameter dome of the Cúpula Atlántica Observatory at the top of Monte San Pedro.
Created by British designer Es Devlin, the performance comprised three alternately revolving floor sections lined with seating from which guests could gaze upon the creative projection overhead.
We first fabricated the base structure, a spider frame made using box section steel and fitted with plates to accommodate the wheels of the revolves. We fabricated the three revolves, each frame fitted with 4 nylon guide wheels.
Each revolve was powered with a drive and 6 motors with rack and pinion, a pressure wheel maintaining the mesh. All three revolves were controlled using our Qmotion Galileo console.
The static centre and outer flooring were created combining stock and custom-made staging units, single skinned with 18mm FR plywood and topped with 6mm marine ply (moisture resistant to protect the surface from warping in the humid conditions). The final layer used over 240m of 2mm thick high-shine dance floor, the revolves routed near their edge to provide a rebate for the LED lighting inset into their surface.
In the roof of the venue, we first installed a frame that followed the curvature of the dome. Steel wire rope hung from 82 points in the roof to suspend CHS tube rings, to which we fitted rolled double shotgun keder rails. Acoustic panels were fitted, 12mm ply (painted white) that would reflect the audio back into the venue. These were layered with a bespoke printed PVC mesh, 21 triangles of material installed from the top and rolled down the keder extrusion, self-tensioning as they reached the wider bottom of the frame. The final step was the installation of a capping to the centre of the roof.
Having completed the structure, we worked closely with the client and the creative teams on site to finalise the set, map the creative projection, and test the automation.
And with the set being subject to frequent use in a public domain, two maintenance visits were included in the schedule to ensure the continued safety and suitability of each performance.
