Half Dose #18: Mount Tindaya

Mount Tindaya is located on Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands. It was chosen by artist Eduardo Chillida, after a long and exhaustive search, as the location for a large-scale sculpture, a carved space of roughly cubic proportions (50m per side) inside the mountain that would be capped by two skylights.


Mount Tindaya

Ove Arup Engineers began work in 2003, performing a feasibility study and mapping the geology of the location. The most difficult aspect of the design's carved void is the flat ceiling that Chillida desires, given that the weight above would best be transferred to the "walls" via an arched, or similar ceiling.



Since the project's inception, in the form of small-scale models as shown here, the Canary Islands has been enthusiastic about realizing it full-size in Mount Tindaya. The three-phase project (I-feasibility, II-drilling, III-construction) is expected to be completed in 2010, according to Arup's page.



Check out the highly informative Mount Tindaya web page below for lots of information on the project, the artist, and the process behind its realization.

Links:

:: Mount Tindaya
:: Eduardo Chillida
:: Arup feature
:: Floornature feature