Birdsong Sculpture

The Birdsong sculpture has been developed as part of the Amble Bird 'Waalk' in Northumberland. The Birdsong sculpture was one of twelve within the ‘Bord Waalk’ and represented the sound waves that are echoed along the Northumberland coastline. The structure is constructed out of slender steel hollow sections to form a moment frame. This is to support a suspended art piece depicting birdsong sound constructed in steel, suspended with stainless steel. It was necessary to design the structure to satisfy lateral stability requirements and for the required robustness for its setting of a public space to resist overturning.

Initially the art piece has been designed and verified to determine the forces that are acting through the cable to be transferred into the steel frame and so locations that these impose an action onto the frame can be confirmed. Further, the welding required to join the hollow sections together to form the suspended piece can be verified based on the loading introduced through wind actions.
The tension forces in the cables are inputted into the hollow sections which will produce biaxial bending in the sections to be resisted by the slender members, and further, to be resisted at the end span of members where moment connections are required so that a mechanism does not develop due to the frame being constructed with only pin ends. To resist win within the suspended sculptures, 6mm fillet welds are required over the full perimeter.

Awards: ISructE Structural Artistry Award Winner

Architect: Aether and Hemera