Remarkable structures, the challenge of creating a forest in the desert

General information:

Name of the project: Remarkable structures, the challenge of creating a forest in the desert

Clients: la Autoridad de Desarrollo de Riyadh and Al-Babtain LeBLANC

Location: Riyadh, KSA

Project details:

‘Spiralling Spheres’ is a group of outstanding tree-shaped sculptures lighting a road intersection in Riyadh, KSA. These steel structures are 25 high and have 9m diameter, are composed of a slender trunk that supports a sphere made of several spiralling tubes. They were designed by ALS Lightning and calculated by BAC.

This project was extremely interesting and complex. One of the main challenges was the structural calculation of these flexible structures against dynamic wind loads. We combined structural engineering, fluid dynamics (real and computational wind tunnels) and visual programming (Grasshopper).