The Art of Access

Kingfisher Access was contracted by The White Wall Company, professional art installers
and fabrication specialists, to help install the latest Conrad Shawcross sculpture at the Ministry of Justice building in Petty France, London SW1.
Shawcross specialises in wooden mechanical sculptures based on philosophical and scientific ideas. Made entirely from Douglas-fir, a softwood first imported to Britain in 1827, this weighed in at 2.5 tonnes and was 13.4 metres high. “Its size and weight were not the problem,” says George Reid, managing director of Kingfisher. “The problem was how to gain access to install the sculpture on site. Not only was space limited but also, more crucially, the maximum allowed floor loadings were such as to prohibit the use of both a crane and an aerial lift. A mobile access tower was therefore the obvious choice.”
“It could be carried in, assembled, inspected and then removed quickly and easily with the minimum of fuss and disruption. In the event it took just five hours to erect and four hours to dismantle.”
Designed and installed by Kingfisher Access using only PASMA trained erectors, the structure consisted of four Boss 850 aluminium towers with a 12.2 metre platform height and 2.5 metre boards tied together at the corners. Time was at a premium. The structure was erected on the Friday and the sculpture installed over the weekend. The installation was completed by midnight on Sunday night and the tower removed by 6.00am on the Monday morning ready for the start of the working week.
“Most people's perception of an access tower is something between two metres and four metres platform height. This is one of several advanced applications that we have carried out for our customers and demonstrates the versatility of this product,” says Reid.