‘blow and roll’ located in the victoria & albert museum’s madjeski garden pond

oskar zieta was commissioned by london design festival 2010 to develop an installation for the victoria & albert museum as part of the week long festivities. located within the cultural institution’s madjeski garden pond, ‘blow and roll’ is constructed from large-scale steel elements consisting of different lengths of up to 20 m, arranged at varying heights.

oskar zieta: blow and roll - 2

the work is primarily based on zieta’s own FiDU technology – a process which turns CAD drawings into 3D objects by literally inflating them in the air. the process began in june, and the studio when through all stages of prototyping in order to develop the world’s first rolled steel profile.

oskar zieta: blow and roll - 3

when designing ‘blow and roll’, one of the most important things for zieta was to develop a dialogue with the museum’s garden space. the aim of the installation is to take advantage of FiDU’s flexibility to create objects that will interact with the dominating form of a pond (fountain) giving it a third-dimension. in order to strengthen the effect, glossy stainless steel is used – mirroring its reflecting in the water, surroundings and elements – into one another.

oskar zieta: blow and roll - 4

this new installation brings zieta’s research of the efficient production chain of steel constructions, to a new level. the resulting form is an effect of a ‘controlled loss of control’, joining the parameters of the free deformation and the control of the project’s parameters such as: thickness of sheet steel, rolling direction of the material, the geometry of the shapes of the elements and the overall proportions of the form.

images of the construction process:

oskar zieta: blow and roll - 5 the installation arrived to london in wooden boxes

one of the challenges of the project was transporting it to the garden in one piece. in the end, they were brought to london flat, then rolled out and inflated using water. air was then pumped into the gap between the steel plates to create their final 3D shape, one site.

oskar zieta: blow and roll - 6 unpacking the boxes to free the deflated steel rolls

oskar zieta: blow and roll - 7 the rolls inside the museum ready to go to the garden

oskar zieta: blow and roll - 8 heading out to the garden

oskar zieta: blow and roll - 9 setting the rolls rolls in the garden

The First Rolled Steel Profile – powered by FiDU from Zieta on Vimeo.

oskar zieta: blow and roll - 10 sketches

oskar zieta: blow and roll - 11 limited editions of the 1st kilometre of a rolled steel profile can be purchased