Rain Bow Gate | Tonkin Liu

The artwork competition organised by Burnley Borough Council looked to commission a piece of public artwork to enhance the image and improve overall perceptions of the Princess Way Gateway – Education & Enterprise Zone. The Education & Enterprise Zone includes the new University of Central Lancashire, the Burnley College Campus, and a development site set aside for future investment. Princess Way runs parallel to this, north of Burnley town centre. The project was funded by the European Regional Development Fund, Homebase Section 106 funds, Sustrans, Burnley College, and Burnley Council. The aim was to create an improved public space at the campus entrance, and provide a positive, distinct first impression for visitors and residents of Burnley, develop a contemporary, bold, creative, innovative and high quality design that denotes the area for education and enterprise in Burnley, raising the profile of Burnley’s renewed ambition for improvement. A branding project for Burnley yielded three qualities held as important, natural, animated, and connected. Shell Lace Structure is a technique informed by nature. Sea shells gain strength from optimised curvilinear geometry, locking in stiffness with corrugation. Lightness is achieved through perforation, creating highly-efficient and responsive structures with minimum weight and wastage. The technique has been pioneered in the past year by a team of architects at Tonkin Liu in collaboration with Ed Clark at Arup, developed through research and experiment with digital modeling, digital analysis, and digital fabrication tools. The design process is intuitive, analytical and iterative. Three-dimensional geometries are built up virtually from conjoined developable surfaces. These surfaces are unzipped at the seams, unrolled and nested allowing efficient laser cutting from a flat sheet material. The cut profiles are reassembled to create the final three-dimensional form. The result is a new breed of single surface structure. Rain The rain in Burnley was pivotal to its industrial past, and it was the first place in the UK to record its rainfall. The rain filled the rivers, the rivers powered the first mills, the moist air kept the cotton supple for weaving. Rain and sun-light are used here not as symbols but as a series of experiences. The sound of the rain on the thin drum like steel roof, collecting rainwater and channeling it into the ground. Patterns of rainfall are illuminated by shafts of light at night that also sends shafts of light into the misty sky. Integrating 133 medium prisms, our pavilion captures light and create arrays of nature’s full colour spectrum light. Angles and perforations in the roofs have been optimized through orientation and angle of the sun. After the rain comes the rainbow, a fitting symbol for optimism, regeneration and learning in Burnley. Bow The bow of a rainbow is the most simple and dynamic natural geometry, structurally efficient due to its curvature, thereby minimizing use of material. The arches of the viaduct give the site one of its most defining architectural characteristics. Alluding to the spirit of the place, we wanted to animate its strong architectural context. Instead if relying on mass as was in the case of the stone viaducts of the past, we used the principles of Shell Lace Structure, using 3mm thick stainless steel sheets to create a continuous strong form. After the decline of the mills, the engineering expertise in the Burnley region has metamorphosized, turning the region into the heartland of precision engineering and advanced manufacturing. What better place to demonstrate an innovative structural and fabrication principle than in front of the six-form college in Burnley, where future designers, engineers, and entrepreneurs are nurtured? Gate Three gateways welcome people from three directions, where three routes coverege in front of a college, creating a gathering place. The three perforate arches fuse to form a covered space that responds to the ever-changing weather. The133 prism inserts in the perforations project a spectrum of rainbow coloured light. At night, light shines through the prism to cast rainbow coloured light onto the mist. Rain Bow Gate is a gateway into Burnley, and a place to gather and experience the dappled, rainbow coloured, ever-changing light.