Hokkaido Sports Center, Sapporo, Japan | Image 1 | Ed Carpenter, Artist
Hokkaido Sports Center, Sapporo, Japan | Image 2 | Ed Carpenter, Artist
Hokkaido Sports Center, Sapporo, Japan | Image 3 | Ed Carpenter, Artist
Hokkaido Sports Center, Sapporo, Japan | Image 4 | Ed Carpenter, Artist
Hokkaido Sports Center, Sapporo, Japan | Image 5 | Ed Carpenter, Artist
Hokkaido Sports Center, Sapporo, Japan | Image 6 | Ed Carpenter, Artist
Hokkaido Sports Center, Sapporo, Japan | Image 7 | Ed Carpenter, Artist

Hokkaido Sports Center

Hokkaido Sports Center contains three arenas for all types of indoor sporting events. Its main entry is a dramatic 100′ high cone of glass known as the Pavilion, for which Ed Carpenter was commissioned in 1998 to design a monumental integrated sculpture. His objective was to create a delicate and transparent tracery of cables and glass strips within the pavilion which grow out of the building structure itself. The architecture and sculpture are organically connected, inseparable. Yet the sculpture adds elements of mystery, asymmetry, tension, movement. Is it a device for making astronomical observations, an enormous seed pod, an abstraction of an athlete, or perhaps simply a serene sculptural form? In daylight the cone of dichroic glass strips and stainless steel cables reflect and project subtly changing colors in kinetic patterns all around the architectural surfaces and deep into the lower story. At night the entire pavilion is a glowing lantern, visible from a great distance and sparkling with delicate luminosity. As one moves around the Pavilion, the dichroic glass blushes mysteriously. Yet the structure is so airy and transparent that from some angles it seems to disappear, leaving views out through the glass cone. To those who emerge from the darkness of the subway, the Pavilion is a crystalline welcome to the sunlight. To the rest of the city it is a beacon and a landmark.

Hokkaido Sports Center

Entry pavilion sculpture

Client: Prefecture of Hokkaido

Sapporo, Japan

Date: September 1999

Dimensions: 52' x 49'

Materials: Laminated dichroic glass, stainless steel cables, hardware, and mast and ring.


Descriptors: Sculpture, site specific sculpture, interior sculpture, interior sculpture suspended, architectural sculpture, architectural art, public art, commissioned art, glass art, art glass, architectural art glass, laminated glass art, suspended sculpture, suspended glass art sculpture, tension sculpture, cable art, cable tension sculpture, art lighting, illuminated art, illuminated sculpture, night lighting art, skylight sculpture, entry sculpture, ceiling sculpture

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Ed Carpenter Studio
1812 NW 24th Avenue
Portland, Oregon USA 97210


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