Background
This project was interesting for Hoist UK as we worked in collaboration with Marc Fish, who runs Robinson House Studio furniture school after having made furniture for over 20 years. His process pushes the limits of 21st century design and mixes art, design, sculpture and furniture. He was commissioned by Sushi Samba to create the shell to hang 3 metres off the ground in the city centre restaurant.
The end client, Sushi Samba is a restaurant that blends Japanese, Brazilian and Peruvian culture and cuisine; with the first restaurant opening in 1999 in New York. They have since expanded to Miami, Las Vegas, Amsterdam and 2 locations in London (Heron Tower & Covent Garden). The Heron Tower restaurant is located on the 39th Floor with views out across London and was the proposed location for this shell installation.
The Requirement
The bespoke piece of art work constructed by Marc Fish and has team, weighing 130kg and measuring 2m by 2.5m was commissioned by Sushi Samba needed to be suspended from the ceiling and in constant steady rotation, in time to music, over patrons in the restaurant. Alongside this, there was also a requirement for the shell to lit from the inside with LED lighting rigged up to a DMX lighting control.
The Challenge
The challenge for our team at Hoist UK was split into four sections: firstly to find a suitable method of suspending the shell from the ceiling of the 39th floor restaurant. We also needed to supply a mechanism to allow continuous rotation at a constant speed. The team were faced with the issue of cable management within the artwork to allow it to be lit with LED’s. The final challenge faced by the team at Hoist UK was the restricted time frame in which the install had to take place, allowing Sushi Samba to continue with service as usual the following day.
All four of these challenges within the project were approached by the Hoist UK staff to create expertly crafted, technically correct solutions.
The Solution
To begin creating solutions for the challenges, our engineers went to the Sushi Samba restaurant and conducted a full dimensional site visit, allowing us to understand suitable structural members in the roof to suspend our rotation device and the bespoke piece of art work from safely. From this we were then able to design a less intrusive mechanism which clamped to the beams in the roof, alleviating the need to drill or weld anything in the ceiling of the restaurant. A technical submission was sent over to both the client and the artist to explain how we would install the bespoke shell.
For this project, Hoist UK worked in collaboration with the artist Marc Fish to find a suitable method of connection to the shell to be hung safely above restaurant patrons. To enable this, Marc Fish decided the shell would be manufactured in two pieces and Hoist UK supplied a load bearing suspension point which was assembled into the shell to suspend it.
Our rotator unit was connected to a DMX lighting control board in order to control all aspects of the artwork rotation from one place. The rotation unit had to be suitable for the Safe Working Load (SWL) required for the shell and its internal lighting scheme, with suspension to allow the shell to hang at the desired height within the restaurant. All was installed without drilling into existing structures, instead clamping to high level steelwork, obstructed by a bamboo structure as part of the restaurants’ décor.
On the night of installation, the Hoist UK team worked with staff from Sushi Samba, Marc Fish and his team, to install the equipment needed, hang the shell and install the LED lighting, all between 1am and 8am in the through the night installation slot. This was completed successfully and handed back to the client – Sushi Samba – within one night.
Hoist UK
"We enjoy working on projects like this, where our extensive experience in the industrial and entertainment lifting industry can help to provide bespoke solutions, thanks to our technical and design teams, which are not only safe but also fall in line with the customers vision.”
Marc Fish
“Using Hoist UK was the right choice, they made a very stressful installation a breeze. Their knowledge and experience was very reassuring, I would happily recommend them to anyone.”
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