'Origin', Installation by UVA. Image courtesy of United Visual Artists.
Synopsis
Bristol City Council is currently in the process of completing a number of new developments on the Hengrove Park site in South Bristol. Included in the development masterplan is the new Hengrove Leisure Centre. As part of the development United Visual Artists (UVA) were commissioned to develop a new commission for the building, working closely with the art consultants FoRM Associates.
UVA’s work, which is currently under detailed design involves the use of led light points in a CAD milled circular enclosure. The work, which will be set into the fabric of the architecture will provide a focal point for the public lobby/cafe. As the users of the centre move through the space , the sound resulting from their combined movement will be translated into a constantly evolving pattern of light which pulses and moves through the surface of the work.
United Visual Artists (UVA)
Established in 2003, United Visual Artists are an art and design practice based in London. UVA produce work at the intersection of sculpture, architecture, live performance, moving image and digital installation.
UVA’s team members come from many disciplines including fine art, architecture, communication design, moving image, computer science and engineering. The cross-pollination of diverse skills inspires new fields of exploration, which is core to their ethos.
Pushing the boundaries of research, software and engineering with every project, UVA’s work aims above all to be meaningful and engaging.
UVA’s work has been exhibited at institutions including the V&A, the Royal Academy of Art, the South Bank Centre, the Wellcome Collection, Opera North Leeds, Durham Cathedral and The British Library. Their artworks have also toured internationally to cities including Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Yamaguchi, Taipei, Hong Kong, Melbourne and Barcelona. UVA also have large scale permanent art works in Toronto and Istanbul.
FoRM Associates is a London-based design practice that looks holistically at the ‘liveability’ of 21st century cities, creating places that are better to live in, work in and enjoy.
We are urbanists in the widest sense, working collaboratively to fuse urban design and landscape architecture with ecology, environmental design, master-planning, architecture, branding, lighting, arts, media and engineering. FoRM delivers aspirational and cohesive responses to complex urban situations by bringing together a range of professional disciplines in effective collaboration.
Our approach to place making is focused on developing visions for clients and cities that are distinctive, sustainable and functional. Form produces innovative and contemporary design solutions that avoid preconceived styles and instead respond directly to their social and environmental context.
Whether at the scale of urban masterplans or intimate sanctuaries, our design process takes the specific social, cultural and economic factors at play and combines them with sustainable environmental practice. By inviting people to join the process we form new places that embody the values of their inhabitants and users, contribute positively to their urban setting and inject vitality into their city’s economy.
The ultimate success of creating new places depends upon delivering the vision with clarity. FoRM’s hallmark lies in its ability to design functional and people orientated public realms that are inspiring both in their design and in reality.
