How to turn your factory into a work of art… or the art of gaining height in industry
Organic, monumental, intriguing… but above all resolutely unexpected when, at a bend on the RD612, a major road linking the Mediterranean to the Tarn in SOuth of France, the eye catches these tall intertwined forms. This is a work of art designed by the artist Olivier Vadrot, for the Béziers-based company Technilum®. One, architect and artist, and the other, designer and manufacturer of urban lighting furniture, have plenty in common: an absolute taste for precision and artwork, a sense of refinement and a deep conviction that art has an essential role to play, whether in public spaces or in companies such as Belverde, based in Lézigno, Technilum®’s head office and industrial manufacturing plant near Béziers.
Belverde, organic lookout
Belverde is an artwork designed specifically for the Lézigno plant and made using the industrial equipment on site: Technilum aluminium masts and cut, bent and screwed sheet elements from the same metal.
The principle is simple: a spiral staircase is wound around one, two, three, and finally six poles, like the tendril of a climbing plant. These multiple hooks add rigidity, but they also allow the original spiral staircase to be deconstructed to create a unique, organic form.
The artwork is now installed on the highest part of the site, next to century-old olive trees.
It invites visitors to climb up to the sky and discover a distant landscape hidden from those on the ground. From the top, you can see all the way to Béziers Cathedral and the Mediterranean shores. However, at the top of the staircase, there is no real landing, just a double step – the journey is an end in itself. The staircase bends and then descends again, following the same principle, until it touches the ground at another point. So the journey can be made in one direction, then the other.
A technical challenge that Technilum’s multi-disciplinary teams (integrated design office, machining, assembly) are proud to have achieved!
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