Frame and Form

In 1951, The London skyline was transformed after the construction of one of the most impressive structures you've seen this city. The Skylon was a tower some 100 meters designed to mark a milestone in the exposure Festival of Britain.

A multidisciplinary team formed by two young architects Jacko Moya and Philip Powell and the brilliant structural designer Felix Samuely designed an elegant and austere like 'float' inviting Londoners to visit the fairgrounds.

Skylon The structural design was based on the principles of tensegridad to place a needle 100 meters suspended 13 meters above the ground by a clever system of cables and rods. Skylon functionality identifies more with the sculpture with the building, its vocation to be reinforced by a powerful lighthouse night lighting that gave the play a futuristic air.

The use of steel and aluminum (new materials in 1951), simplicity of the construction process (see plans en la Meta-Information), and make almost iconic status 60 years later we still marvel is structure that is suspended on London's South Bank.
The Skylon became an icon of modernity in Britain, and is considered one of the earliest examples of so-called arquitectura High-Tech championed today by British firms as Richard Rogers or Norman Foster.

Unfortunately, The Skylon was designed to be an ephemeral work with an expiration date linked to the exhibition and was dismantled in 1952 without being lucky enough to be pardoned as well as with the fair Eiffel Tower.

Leveraging its 60 anniversary (2011), an organization of professionals and institutions, has launched a campaign to rebuild this landmark work of structural design. The initiative Re-Build the Skylon artwork and has compiled the highest caliber technical. We recommend you dig a look our Meta-Information section where you can find detailed plans, structural designs and technical specifications of original materials. From Frame and Form support this campaign and hope you have the success it deserves.

Meta-Information:

Map detail and construction process of the Skylon 01 [pdf]

Techinical Info del Skylon 02 [pdf]

Letter Designers [pdf] [Eng]

*(all images and documents are taken from the website of the campaign Re-Build the Skylon)