Aerial Studio Design
Gavin Smith
“The Axis of Ecstasy” The Aerial Lab, circa 1999
Aerial rigging is a specialised and highly complex form of engineering with architectural, aesthetic, and technical challenges that we embrace every time our business is engaged to produce an aerial studio.
In the late 1990’s we built our first dedicated aerial studio, The Aerial Lab, to research and develop physical theatre and aerial arts at the old railway yards of Central Sydney. We are privileged and honoured to be a part of art making history and preserve an important asset for the wider community. Our skills, expertise and knowledge were forged within that time and space.
Since those lofty days, we have gone on to establish many Aerial Art Studios for our own organisation and we now offer this service to our many customers who are the owners and operators of Aerial Art Studios both in Australia and around the world.
Integral Aerial Studio, Sydney, Australia
One of our past contributions to the progression and development of aerial arts for our customers is over at Integral Aerial Arts in Sydney, Australia. The brief was simple enough, to create an aerial art studio that was safe and easy to operate, have lots of interchangeable rigging systems and points and have an emergency lowering system in place for everybody's safety. Just a few challenges stood in the way for this to happen. For a start, there were no structurally sound elements to the building framework which we could safely rig from, we were basically turning the old factory into a theatre!
Friction Bar Anchor System
For this project, we relied on experiences from our deep and rich past of previous work and our professional relationships with structural engineers and steelworkers that resulted in the reinforcement of the building's roof and the placement of additional steelwork. Over 2 tonnes of steel beams were placed up and under the existing roof without disturbing any of the roof structures.
We then had to design the running rigging system or in other words, the rigging system that allowed for each point to be lowered to the ground quickly in response to a student that needed rescuing.
Our ethics and values of working in a high-risk creative environment provide our customers with the safest and most robust systems, equipment and training anywhere in the world today.
Get in touch with us today to discuss your project's potential.
