Shell (2002)
Shell, Opening Festival of Esplanade Theatres on the Bay, Singapore (2002)
S301194 / Bambuco Archive
Shell was created for the opening of the Esplanade Theatre Complex in Singapore in 2002. It was a collaboration with aerial performance company, Acrobat.
The structure's design was based on the shape of a durian fruit to mimic the architecture of the Singapore Performing Arts Centre. It was the most complex structure Bambuco had attempted and required two shipping containers of bamboo. It was the first time they built a structure the audience could walk inside and measured 30m long, 20m wide and 20m tall.
The work signalled a turning point for Bambuco in both the evolution of a new organisational structure which was more appropriate to the rapidly growing company and the move away from traditional engineering concepts. The discovery that a curved membrane of bamboo made the structure self-supporting resolved the seemingly insurmountable technical challenges that threatened to put an end to the project.
Sketch for Shell (2002)
S200082 / Bambuco Archive
Construction of Shell (2002)S301216 / Bambuco Archive