The ArcelorMittal Orbit Tower, the 375-feet-tall grotesque totem of the London Olympic games, has been complete, and the spiraling red steel monument now awaits the masses to escalate its contorting stairway and regenerate funds for East London. Though co-creator Anish Kapoor described the work as part Babel, part Eiffel and part Tatlin, to Arup engineer Cecil Balmond, the structure defies the semblance of structural logic that so defines its iconic predecessors and even resists laying claim to engineering magic: “We want people to forget the engineering, the construction, the materials and simply ‘experience’ it.”

Whether it is an awareness-tingling experience or just another money-sucking spectacle, the tower–which has garnered many colorful descriptions from “21st century Column of Trajan” to “overgrown maypole”– had to endure the same grounding process of construction as does any work of architecture. Architect Magazine has recently released some snippets of elevation and section drawings for Kapoor and Balmond’s hybrid artwork, and whether these impede or add to your experience of the object, we’ll leave up to you. Drawings after the jump.

[All images via Architect Magazine]

by Kelly Chan

posted in news

tagged Anish Kapoor, ArcelorMittal, ArcelorMittal Orbit, cecil balmond, construction drawings, drawings, elevation, london, London Olympics, olympics, olympics 2012, plan, section, spectacle, tower

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