Radiolus – La Barre de Monts (FR)

Radiolus, artistic playground – La-Barre-de-Monts (FR) – 2018

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Creation / Métalobil

Design Engineering / Manufacture / Installation / Métalobil

Contracting Owner / Commune de la Barre de Monts

La-Barre-de-Monts / Fromentine city, in Vendee region, asks us to answer a call for tenders to design and manufacture an extraordinary installation. They want “an artistic playground for children from 6 to 12 years old. The monumental, unique and creative work must become a strong urban symbol, representative of the district identity.”

Answering to the theme « marine and/or submarine world », we propose “Radiolus”, a sculpture freely inspired from the XIX naturalist Ernst Haeckel Radiolaria.

The Radiolaria are protozoa of diameter 0.1–0.2 mm. They are found as zooplankton throughout the ocean, and their skeletal remains make up a large part of the cover of the ocean floor as siliceous ooze.

Here are some technical information about this playground:

The sculpture is 5m diameter, 3m high.
Auto stable, the structure is made of metallic tubes.
The skin is in parplex panels, composite material adapted to outdoor. It is perforated with thousands of little holes enabling interior and exterior structure climbing, this evokes marine creatures. The skin is also opened with 32 bigger holes enabling access between interior and exterior.
Inside the structure there is a tight net, it let spaces to go up and down.
The sculpture exterior is bristled with steel rods, they increase the sculpture expressivity and offer to children more opportunities to climb and hang. Those “pins” also enable knotted ropes fixing.
The structure is opened by two oculus (inferior and superior) : one can enter inside by skipping under the creature belly (for the younger), or by climbing the wall and jumping into the upper one.

At night, it gets lighted. Inside the park, it evokes the idea of a giant photophore.

And Pascal Denis, La-Barre-de-Monts/ Fromentine mayor, exclaims: “Metalobil creation reflects wonderfully the marine story we wanted to tell the inhabitants.”